A New Year

December was pretty busy for us but January just flew by! In December we had Christmas with all of our family, in state and out. At our church we also had the one year memorial for Father Richard. We celebrated the new year with a St. Basil's cake. I brought one to church too which was really fun. Our dear Romanos got the coin, and in our family Ben got the coin! Yay! We were lucky to have the blessing of the waters at our church too although for the Theophany service itself we went to St. Nicholas. Evelyn was in a play at the end of January. She gave an excellent performance! After much running about and schedule juggling we are all glad that there are no more late play practice nights! Pfew!

Puddle reflections. 

We've had a mild mid-winter. We even had a thunderstorm one evening!

The warm-ish climate made it easier to get outside and go for a walk in the woods.

The damp weather was perfect for hunting out different types of mushrooms. 

These puffballs just looked so cheery sitting on a mossy log together.

Look how perfectly they sit atop one another!

The snow had melted leaving a soft trail through the trees.

I'm guessing this was another puffball mushroom. The surface was stiff like an eggshell.
Update: This is actually an Oak Apple Gall, the home of a wasp before it emerges fully formed.

This is Brown Witches Butter. It's very jelly like and shows up when the weather has been very wet.

We found lots of shelf-like mushrooms, soft and flexible in their smallness. The undersides were deep orange.

This is a White Milk Toothed Polypore and it's got to be one of my favorites. 

They are like lacey doilies clinging to the rough bark. 

And then... the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of Winter. 

A cold front moved through dropping the temperatures and dropping plenty of snow.

The snow revealed lots of animal tracks - we've found fox, deer, rabbit, and racoon so far!

We left some of our own behind too.

Mushrooms, dried in the cold, now hold up a shelf of snow.

Despite the cold wind it was still nice to get out for a walk through the woods. 

Everything looked so different under a blanket of snow.

Winter it may be, but the sun is shining again! It really makes me happy to see it!

A dried seed stalk bounces in the wind, awaiting the promise of Spring.