The return trip

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the return trip of my recent walk would follow and so here it is.

Can you see the groundhog looking out from his den?   On the trip out, there was a rustling sound off to my left when I stepped off the two lane highway with the wide berms onto another side road.  This groundhog was out of his den and there was a black and white cat facing him down.  I couldn't believe a cat would take on a groundhog but they were staring at each other and preparing to square off.  I called out to try and chase the groundhog back into his den or send the cat along its way. No luck.

Animal lover that I am, I envisioned a nasty fight breaking out and bloodshed.  Next step was to throw a stone close to one of them.  After several tosses the groundhog retreated into his den and peered out at me.  The cat didn't budge and in fact, crouched down making throaty, threatening noises at me.  That decided it .  The cat was on its own!  I continued on my walk expecting to see a maimed or dead cat on the return trip.

Imagine my surprise when, on the way back, I saw the cat gone and Mr. Groundhog staring up at me from his den as I lectured him on not fighting in the future.


Another picture of the turning point on the walking route.  The horse farm that was in the last picture in the previous post (on the right) is now off to the left of this picture.  The road curves to the right somewhat as you can see and there is a rise in the road just out of sight.

Here we are, around the curve above and up the rise, walking towards the two lane highway with the wide berms.  That highway is just visible at what appears to be the end of the road in the picture below which intersects with the highway.  Mr. Groundhog was almost at the end of this road on the right hand side just down an embankment.

Well, we've walked along the highway and turned onto the road which intersects (eventually) with the street where I live.    Some areas of the road below have heavy tree cover which makes for slow snow melt in the winter because the sun doesn't reach the roadway to melt it as quickly as the areas that see the sun.  However, it's one of the cooler spots on our walk in warm weather because of all the shade.

Finally, we're on the home stretch of our walk.  My driveway is the first one on the right hand side as we continue down this street.  You're welcome to stop and put your feet up,  have a cold drink of water or if the weather is cold, a hot cup of tea or coffee.
I hope you enjoyed walking along the route that my walking buddies and I follow.  Today's walk was especially nice in the balmy, sunny weather.  

Snow flurries are forecast to begin early tomorrow morning which could make my morning commute to work interesting but later this week nice weather is to return.

A book I put on hold at the library was ready for pickup today and I can hardly wait to begin reading it.  The BBC television series "Call the Midwife" is based on the book "Call the Midwife, A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times" and I've been waiting a while for my turn to read it.  The series I watched on public television was delightful.
I hope everyone had a good day today and a good week this week.