We visited this old plywood logging pond (now restored and home to a variety of fish and wildlife) last year, coming in at it's (open) main entrance but on my regular walks these days, following the river and the train tracks, I end up at the locked back-gate and have to turn around.
This morning I decided to follow the train tracks a little further down to where I discovered that there was no fence at all along the tracks. I could step right onto the trail!
If a follow the whole trail around the pond I'll add another 0.6 miles to my walk, which is a perfect little addition!
I was thrilled to discover a whole bunch of birds in the pond!
Besides a gaggle (official word for a group of geese on the ground or in the water) of Canadian Geese there was a large flock of Wigeons (top left and right in collage below) and several pairs of Buffleheads (bottom right):
That bird on the bottom left (above) is a Common Cormorant, of which there were a whole bunch more resting and drying on a small dock/platform in the middle of the pond:
In the meantime, in Punxsutawney (PA), groundhog Phil predicted six more weeks of winter after seeing his shadow at Gobbler's Knob this morning:
And, as they do every year, thousands of people had gathered to see him do it!
It looks like he might be onto something since this is what our weather forecast looks like:
It didn't freeze last night but we already had a little bit of wet snow coming down this morning:
Since the ground wasn't cold enough nothing 'stuck' but it was fun while it lasted!
Besides working on a few items of the 'to-do' list James installed our new Microwave/Convection oven combination.
I forgot to mention
last week that the oven of our old one, which had gotten very unreliable
in wanting to warm up, had by than completely given up the ghost, so we
had to order a new one.
Fortunately all dimensions were the same and we could even use the old hardware to hang it on the wall, so it was a fairly easy job.
This unit does not only microwave and bake, and a combination of the two, but also sensor-cooks and has an air-fryer, melting, steaming, proofing, dehydrating and simmer function!
I got to try it out right away since we were low on (sourdough) bread and I wanted to bake some cornbread-muffins to serve with my bean soup.
They baked beautifully, although I have to say that the preheat takes more time to come up to the correct temperature than the oven thinks and even than doesn't quite reach the correct temp ... I've read enough reviews of these combi-ovens to know that this is a common complaint about all but the most expensive, professional units.
This one is regarded as one of the better ones so I guess I just have to make my piece with it .. at least it's better than the old one!
As I mentioned: 15 bean soup ... just the ticket for the upcoming cold weather!
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