Dad's made his mark

I started the day with a male cardinal out front and this big guy on the deck railing.

I always think of Betty when I see those cardinals and she used to love to see the pileated woodpeckers too, so I'll just say that this was a visit from friend and other mother, Betty.

After lunch, I headed to Balsam Lake, WI to the Veteran's Administration office for Polk County.

I picked up the marker provided to us by the Veteran's Administration. 

It's very nice and I think Dad would have liked it 

and I know Ev would have been very proud.

The VA office for Polk County, Wisconsin have been very helpful and extremely kind in their assistance to me.   

Thumbs up to them!

***

On my way home, I went through Luck.

The ice castle still looks great!

After taking care of some banking and shopping, I headed back towards Rice Lake.

I decided to try to see a snowy owl on the way home.

I had a hot tip about one South of Cumberland, not far from where Laila and I saw one in December.

I was in Luck...not really I was in Almena, but I was lucky!

I saw the owl on a power pole, but it flew as I drove up, I watched it glide far out into a snow covered corn field before I was pressed to move on by traffic.

So, I whipped a louie and went back, took the West town road and then the South town road and found the owl sitting in an oak tree out in a big field.

It was almost 300 yards from my spot on the road to the owl.

I watched for about 45 minutes.

Twice concerned passers by stopped to see if I needed help.

Very kind of those gentlemen, and they chuckled when I explained I was watching an owl.

So you see it?

The same photo cropped

It was just too far away for my camera lens, so I tried the old cell phone looking through a binocular and it turned out just okay.

You get the idea of a white owl anyway.

It was pure luck to see this owl, I'll assume that it was Dad sending me a greeting.

Who's to say?

As I sat there watching the owl, I noticed an interesting snow drift.

It's an optical illusion for sure.
The dark blue on the left was the edge of the snow and the lighter part where the wind had worn away some waves.
Cool, eh?

I came upon a brook that was running along quite rapidly, 

there is not much open water right now but perhaps this is a little warmer as it is downstream from

the waste treatment plant?

It was good to be out in nature with the camera again.

Now a little warmer weather would make it all the better.