Volunteer sprouts.

Looks like I missed picking some garlic last year! Not a big deal, I'll just let it mature and pull it up as I would have if I'd actually planted garlic last year. It's definitely the answer to the question I had of whether I could get away with planting garlic as winter slowly wandered in last year. Turns out, if I'd put it in at the normal time the garlic probably would have been just fine. I am a big fan of hearty varieties for just that reason. Learning curve for the future, make sure that you get those over winter plants in the ground!

Tracks, scat, and wildlife visitors.

It is lovely to be keenly aware of just how much more daylight we're getting as I'm out and about in -8 degree weather feeding and caring for the animals. Just being out and about at the same time every day gives a lot of connection to understanding time as the light changes. There are times I think that having flood lights around the house to get more done in the dark hours would be good. Then I remember that doing night time construction in below freezing weather isn't fun or terribly productive anyhow. One of the things that light showed me this morning though, was tracks from some of our visiting wildlife in the wake of the storm.