Although the days are short and cold in Alberta’s midwinter, the clear skies and fresh snow can offer up brilliant daytime scenery to invigorate the senses.
Our hike in Whitemud Creek between Snow Valley and John Janzen Nature Centre gave us just that.
A thick layer of snow had fallen just two days before, burying once and for all the ice that we had been struggling on for weeks.
The crisp temperature kept the snow white and firm, making it the perfect backdrop to display long sharp shadows, a feature of our northerly location.
On the path, we ran into a person who pointed us to a pair of owls nesting in a hollow in the tree above us. That’s right!—a nest of eggs in January. Just above our heads.