Achelous...

Last week, I was walking Sammy down our drive, with Chloe (or Cleo?) following us about 20 feet behind.

All of a sudden, Sammy stopped and turned towards the field.

And Chloe/Cleo stopped and turned towards the field.

So I stopped, and turned towards the field.

And there, coming straight for us at a relaxed lope, was a big, beautiful, sleek river otter!

Even more amazing, he came to a stop on the driveway right between us. Only 10 feet from Sammy and I; only 10 feet from Chloe/Cleo.

He nodded at Sammy then turned and nodded at Chloe/Cleo. He sniffed the air. He turned towards me and tilted his head. Then he continued on his merry little way past the kids' sitting tree, across the road, and down the embankment towards the river.

A few seconds passed once he was out of sight before Sammy, Chloe/Cleo, and I snapped out of our daze. Sammy started barking. Chloe/Cleo ran to the edge of the embankment but then changed her mind about following him further. I rushed Sammy back into the house...and told the kids about how Sammy, Chloe/Cleo, and I had just been greeted by a river god!

They were very excited and looked out the window to see if they could see him; Autumn thought she saw him reach the opposite shore. A bit skeptical, Jasmine asked me how I knew it was a river god. And my well-read Charlie asked if he had ox horns.

It was quite an exciting topic for the rest of our morning...

February snowfall...

We had a few false warnings for snow and ended up with just some flurries here and there. But in mid-February we finally got a nice snowfall:

The filbert above is already a striking plant, but I love how its twists and turns stand out even more against the snow...

Watermark...

Riverstone sits on a bluff above the river, usually 30 feet from the water:


The foliage on the riverbank is normally well over our heads:


But in late January we had a winter thaw followed by a lot of rain. It's a bit hard to see in the photos below, but the river actually rose about 15 feet:

Even though the house sits well above the 100-year flood plain, it was still a bit disconcerting to see the canal on the far side of our property fill up and the watermark at the canal bridge so high...