The Woods in Winter

There is something amazingly peaceful about walking in the woods in winter--even with toddlers. My friend Di was telling me that the Chinese New Year actually celebrates the beginning of the end of winter--how cool to celebrate that time when everything is at its height of the anticipation of spring. Things are almost ready, it is almost warmer.

And here is Amelia. What does she do each time she sees even the smallest patch of snow? She lies down on it. And she eats it. That's what's happening in these pictures--celebrating the beginning of the end of winter by eating snow at the bottom of a tree, and then, wonder of wonders, finding an entire dirt road covered with snow at the edge of the woods!! I could hardly get her to stand up, as if she had to stay down and enjoy the biggest popsicle in the world before the end of winter melted into the beginning of spring.