Didn’t I just say that I hate the cold? I don’t hate the snow. It’s pretty and if it could be warm I might actually like it. It seems to me as a kid I liked it. I remember snowball fights and snowmen and snow forts. I loved “tracking” little animal prints through the white stuff and even learned to snow shoe.

Remember the “Flying saucers?”.

They were round aluminum disks that we sat on to go twirling down the hills when we weren’t racing on the toboggans, I remember the flexible flyer too. We’d hold it up as we ran like crazy only to throw ourselves on it while we were still in the air, kind of like a belly flop except we wanted to do this to get the sled moving faster.

Remember the ice crusts? We’d use plane old cardboard boxes to go sliding then. Just don’t fall face first as that crust could slice and dice. I made many trips home bloodied up.

I even went horseback riding in the snow when I could sneak out. That was a big no-no when it should have been a yes-yes to keep the horse from getting too frisky. 🙂 A fine example of 20-20 hindsight. But my point is that I didn’t always hate the cold and snow.

I hate it now because it hurts. It makes my joints ache, especially my hips, knees and ankles. Today we can add in my right shoulder, maybe from shoveling? I wish it didn’t affect me that way.

I see these wonderful nature programs on PBS, polar bears, elk, caribou and other northern snow-loving animals.

I want to photograph these animals in the wild, not at the zoo. I want a picture of a deer standing in a field of snow for one of my Christmas Cards.

There’s a place, a sanctuary, where I could photograph wolves but the best time to go is, you guessed it, in the winter.

Right here in Massachusetts we have wintering grounds for snowy owls. The best known one is Duxbury Beach, a six mile long barrier beach. Snowy owls that try to settle at Logan Airport are trapped and moved to this stretch of sand to rest before they continue on their southern migration.

Photographing the “Snowies”  is a common winter pastime for bird photographers and birders hold walks to look for them along the beach, but let me tell you, that wind off the water is cold. I’ve driven over to that beach only to chicken out once the wind hit me. I guess I’ll never make a serious nature photographer…more like a fair weather one.

So until I figure out how to keep warm out there, I’ll stand by my “I hate the cold” comment.