This November has been amazingly mild and dry. It is usually the gray, wet and rainy month, the month where there's hardly any sun and not much to do but hunker down and eat too much. Not so this year...it's been great for woody rambles, like the one I took the other day and found the marbles someone had "lost". I found other treasures as well.
This is a pretty common scene around here, one that we generally take forgranted and don't do much about, unless of course you're a farmer and the field that has become a pond thanks to the industrious dam building of the mighty beaver is posing a problem.
It is truly awesome how big toothed, furry rodents with a leathery tails can gnaw their way through huge trees!
Must be great for their fur coats, though as the beaver is a primary reason that the Voyageurs explored this area, seeking beaver pelts to take back to the kings and queens and lords and ladies of the Old World.
While wandering down the side road, enjoying the afternoon quiet, I heard the tell tale "Slap!" and in the small pond beside the road, I just caught a glimpse of the beaver before he headed underwater, leaving nothing but a few beaver bubbles behind.
I thought, well, I can wait. He'll have to come for air sooner or later. I mean, how far can he swim underwater?
Very far it seems. He's hardly visible, in the upper left, where the water meets the edge of the land. Farther than my camera could take me. The beaver is a Canadian icon, renowned for his industriousness, strength in adversity and an uncanny ability to perceive danger and act accordingly. And eat big trees for breakfast.
