A Winter Afternoon

A late February afternoon is a busy time on the trails that traverse the area surrounding the Backus Page House. The wet snow makes it easy to follow the trail of foraging deer. The crisp markings of cloven hooves pass under leafless boughs out into stubble painted and windblown fields.

Further across the rows a red-tailed hawk has gone to ground. It fluffs up; standing guard over the still warm prey that will make its early dinner. Woodpeckers call and flit from tree to tree only stopping to tap in search of something to eat.

The old grindstone stands girded in white, forgotten until spring....

...while far over head, dark against the grey sky, a bald eagle wings out towards Lake Erie.