A walk along the edge of the red maple swamp in our backyard, and a dove is watching us.

Intrepid explorers are we. Snow and ice but the swamp is not all the way frozen yet. Soon.

Radar is 5 months old now. From our mudroom door out through the woods, to the field by the pond, then along a path as far as we can go into the red maple swamp and back is a half mile, a nice morning walk for the pup and us.

He knows the word “birds” and looks up to see them fly.