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We had a lazy morning on Lake Champlain.  When I woke up, the lake was frozen solid from our back deck to the island about a mile offshore.  When the wind picked up, it churned up the open water to the south, and the ice started talking.

Sometimes, when the ice breaks up, it sounds like a timpani drum.  Sometimes it sounds like thunder. Sometimes it sounds like a sea lion barking.  And sometimes, it sounds like something from another planet -- something that doesn't sound like an earth noise at all.

So we shivered on the porch this morning and listened.  We watched a mink that popped up from a crack in the ice and played for about an hour before she disappeared again.  And we videotaped, so you could listen and watch, too. 

We've had some colorful visitors stop by the house lately...



The monarch butterflies are loving my Echinacea.

And this little guy has made appearances on our beach twice this week...




It's a mink, we think, a member of the weasel family.  Some of you may have read carriejones 's entries about the weaselly creature that showed up at her house a few weeks ago and looked a lot like a wolverine.  I think this may be a smaller, cuter, distant cousin.  He spent the afternoon frolicking up and down the shore, climbing into drainage pipes, and then playing peek-a-boo before jumping out again.  We're trying to think of a name for him (or her).  Any suggestions?