Day 3.062: Land of ice and Goblet of Fire

After last weekend's gorgeous weather and our stay-at-home get-the-taxes-done squandering of it, I was determined for us to get out even if the weather was bad.

And believe me it was bad - wet, grey and just above freezing.

So, for better or worse, we headed up onto the Heldeberg Escarpment where - to our surprise - we found the world still in the grip of winter. Whereas here it is almost snow-less and had been raining most of the night. There, the ground was still thick with snow and the trees coated with the beautiful results of freezing rain.

Our first stop was the Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center. We discovered when we arrived that they were setting up for an art-show fund-raiser and most of their normal exhibits had been put away or hidden by the artwork. Frankly, it was pretty clear that our presence there was not really ideal for them as they were focussed whole-heartedly on setting up for their later guests - probably better dressed and hopefully (for the center) with deep pockets for the silent auction. Still, the staff did their best to hide their chagrin at our arrival and pointed out the things that were still accessible and kid-friendly and even got their hummingbird nest out of storage for Exile #4 who is studying our smallest avian visitors for a project at school.

We didn't stay too long, and went on to the Thacher Park Cliff Overlook, where we could see the high-ground snow giving way to the grey of the the lowland thaw.

This afternoon, we settled down to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in front of our own fire. Exile #2 had just got to the end of the book in the bedtime reading slot. Although it warned us that it was PG-13 and parents were 'strongly cautioned' for the most part it was not too overwhelming for the girls and E5N1 did his own thing - in and out of watching as he saw fit. I'm not sure I would have been so confident if they had not read it first.