Oceans Of White

One of my favorite pictures from this past winter.

This small group of deer - separate from the rest of the herd temporarily - were standing clustered together across the road from the house.

They are not scared of me but they are wary of Kory, as they should be.

I don't trust my dog.

Not with the deer.

By last fall (after having been bluff charged twice by mothers protecting their yearlings) she was scared of them, but that fear has subsided over this past winter after seeing the deer so close to us so many times.

The deer disappeared a few weeks ago after having spent the entire winter inside the city limits.

Maybe to have their babies

Maybe not.

I don't know, but I know that I miss them.......................

My sister and her husband will be coming to stay with us in only eight weeks.

They are flying from Australia with many of her husbands' family members.

They will all travel to Toronto where there is more family.

After that visit my sister and her husband will fly to Idaho Falls, while the rest of the family will take a train across country and out west to Seattle.

My sister will stay with us for five days and then (although I tried to talk them out of it) they will take a Greyhound bus from Idaho Falls to Seattle.

From there they will all take a cruise up to Alaska together before flying home to Australia.

Such an amazing and epic adventure..

It is funny to think that my Australian sister will walk around Juneau, Alaska just as I walked around Juneau, Alaska.

It is funny to even think about seeing her.

I haven't seen her in 38 years......................

This picture gives some idea of just how different the world looked through this past winter, when our tiny town was covered with snow.

It was not only our town.

The entire SE looked so different.

SE Idaho is filled with endless expanses of BLM land.

It is also filled with endless expanses of farm land - mega farms - growing potatoes primarily but also other crops.

All of that land - bare BLM land and dormant farm land - were completely covered with snow.

Uninterrupted blank slates.

Endless oceans of white.

Sometimes unable to tell exactly where the land ended and the sky began.

As far as the eye could see off into the distance.

It was both stunning and disorienting, but always magical...................

In January in Northern Russia, everything vanishes beneath a deep blanket of whiteness. Rivers, fields, trees, roads, and houses disappear, and the landscape becomes a white sea of mounds and hollows. On days when the sky is gray, it is hard to see where earth merges with air. On brilliant days when the sky is a rich blue, the sunlight is blinding, as if millions of diamonds were scattered on the snow, refracting light. In Catherine's time, the log roads of summer were covered with a smooth coating of snow and ice that enabled the sledges to glide smoothly at startling speeds; on some days, her procession covered a hundred miles.”.............Robert K Massie, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman