early winter walk

I went for a muddy winter walk yesterday, wearing my husband's coat, my daughter's hat and my son's boots.  With my camera bumping against my stomach , a mug of cinnamon tea, and two lively dogs accompanying me, I felt I could face the wind and gloom and perhaps try and find some of the stripped-down, austere beauty of this season.  Mother nature's goods aren't wearing their white winter finery at this point.  Beauty is still there, it's just more subtle, and you have to look a little harder to find it.  

It's a good thing I brought my camera, because normally I would stroll by with my head in the clouds,  and get a general impressions of greyness and brownness and cold wind.   The camera allows you to stop and capture (and linger over) things like this: a fairy staircase! (I know I'm a dork, but seriously, I think that's what it is!)

The squirrels will not go hungry around here, I've never seen so many nuts.  These are hickory, and impossible to break.  Once you do, it's hard to dig out the meat....but they're delicious.

Ah ha!  I'll be coming here to cut some greenery.  I knew these were here, I'd just forgotten .

In a sheltered spot, some colour.  This will be nice for the deer to find.

Gratuitous seed-pod photo.

Oh look, my superior guard dog, waiting for me at the house.  Don't you creatures know we're a pack, and I'm, like, the leader?  And you have to stick with me...Oh well, we had a nice walk, and feel the better for it.  P.S.  in the winter, long-johns are the secret to contentment!  Winter walks (preferably with dogs); good for what ails ya.