Well, okay, I guess it’s winter now.

At least judging by the sudden snow and the seven-vehicle pileup on the hill in front of my shack. Monday morning was quite a mess.

But by Tuesday the snow was done — for the moment, at least — so I braved the roads to go out and have a look around.

And the roads, surprisingly, weren’t all that bad. The gravel ones, at least. The pavement had some pretty icy sections, but I got off that and hit the side roads as soon as I could.

Winter had descended pretty hard on my favourite beaver ponds, just out of town. With only a couple of exceptions they were iced over and snow was piled high on the cattails and willows around them. Chickadees were flitting around, chirping their little songs whenever they landed. Ravens and geese flew overhead.

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The sky was cloudy and there were even a few flakes coming down as I headed south and west from there. I passed horses pawing the pastures and deer along the roadsides. But just south of Millarville there were patches of sunshine breaking through.

Looking west across a shallow lake I could see horses in a snowy pasture next to a lovely ranch yard and beyond them, bright sunshine on the mountain peaks. There were clouds above me, but up the Sheep River valley all was bright and white.

The day was actually pretty pleasant. Not as pleasant as it had been merely 48 hours before — ya know, back when it was still fall — but nice. The temperature was staying steady at around -4 C, chilly but nothing too evil.

I caught the pavement again just west of Turner Valley and scared up a........

© Calgary Herald