January with the Seniors

The snow has fallen, and the sun came out in all its brilliant January glory. Who could resist a walk in the woods?

Bundled up and ready, we started out down the Canal Path in Seneca, heading West toward Marseilles. The weather was, indeed, perfect. Snowmobiles had blazed the trail for us, and walking through the fluffy snow was easy.

We checked out the tracks on the path as we

always do. It's fun to see which animals are out and about in Winter, and how many we can identify. One of the first we spotted today was this one.

Do you know

what critter this is?*

Living rural, we are up to date on the farm scene. A lot of corn is still in the fields, and because of this, the blackbird population did not leave the area this Winter.

We spotted many a tree full of blackbirds (usually a mix of grackles, cowbirds and the occasional Red-winged Blackbird), and many a cornfield with the

stalks supporting a huge cast of the birds. In our backyard

at home, the tree behind one of our feeders is ideal perching for the gang.

Along this section of the path, with the old canal (or what is left of it to the North), we have spotted signs of what it must have looked like earlier. Some of the trees still retain hooks for barbed wire fencing in

their thick bark. In fact, some of the old cottonwoods have embedded barbed wire under new bark growth. And there are the abandoned farm buildings. What a story they could tell if they could speak.

With 2010 upon us, and the wonderful January air

filling our lungs, it seemed only natural to make

the first snow angel of the year here on our very

own Canal Path.

After quite a trek, we

called it a day, and headed home, But we had to snap one more photo

by the I&M Canal Path sign for Seneca's historic site: The Hogan

Grain Elevator, which was THE hot spot during the heydey of the

Canal, with barges of grain headed to Seneca for storage.

So don't be a couch potato in Winter. Put on the long underwear and

GET OUT THERE! It will put the roses in your cheeks.

*The print is a Wild Turkey. We saw him, too, running down the path

ahead of us. He obviously chose the path over the deep snow...Wild Turkeys

are not dummies!