<p>The morning is cold.&nbsp;&nbsp;A light sparkly dusting of frost covers the ground and the clear blue sky reveals the stars and waning slice of moon above.&nbsp;&nbsp;It is 8:30 and it is already getting lighter out, a rosy orange glow graces the horizon- evidence of the days getting longer.</p> <p>I find the matchbox and notice there is only one match left, so I decide to use it to light a candle and bring some feeling of warmth to my indoor surroundings.</p> <p>The last match in the box reminds me of my time of teacher training in an outdoor education programme in Northern Michigan many years ago.&nbsp;&nbsp;One of the courses involved teaching ways of surviving in the snow, and what to do if we were stuck out in the wilderness with only one match left.&nbsp;&nbsp;We taught the pupils to gather and light small branches and leaves to start it off, and gradually as the flame grew, larger branches were added until we (hopefully) had a roaring fire in the middle of the woods.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It was an interesting and sometimes painstaking challenge, theoretically a matter of life and death!</p> <p>For another lesson we built a lean-to with our 12-year-old students and afterwards took turns going in and experiencing what it might be like to sit in such a frozen cocoon.&nbsp; As it happened, inhabiting the insulated space meant that it soon&nbsp;became cozy and warm, not to mention very quiet!&nbsp;&nbsp;A few of my colleagues took their sleeping bags inside and slept in it one night to test it out further,.&nbsp; They woke up fully rested the next morning!</p> <p>That particular winter in January involved a lot of constantly falling snow which accumulated to a height way over my head.&nbsp;&nbsp;So the snowshoes and skis came out often.</p> <p>When groups of children&nbsp;visited the centre for a day, we would&nbsp;take them out for walks in the woods, each with their own pair of snowshoes, and hunt for animal prints, or anything else nature had to offer.</p> <p>We’d often see rabbit or deer tracks.&nbsp;&nbsp;Though I remember once coming across a kind of brush mark in the snow.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our professor at the time suggested that it was most likely a ruffed grouse or ptarmigan that had left the mark when it got up from its snowy nest and flew away.&nbsp;&nbsp;I remember thinking how perceptive he was to spot that.</p> <p>Another time, on my Saturday off, it was -25 degrees Celsius. I decided to layer up and stepped out of my wooden cabin accommodation to do a bit of cross country skiing through the woods.&nbsp;&nbsp;I was very content, gliding through the snow, until an hour later I did not know where I was. I was starting to make circles with my ski tracks, unsure of what direction I was moving in, and stupidly had forgotten my compass.&nbsp;&nbsp;It was another 2 hours before I came across another human being who pointed me in the right direction, and I made it back by early evening light, so relieved, and cold, and happy to see my friends.</p> <p>…</p> <p>A flock of geese flying overhead interrupts my thoughts….</p> <p>…</p> <p>Yesterday, here in the north of Scotland, I went out onto the frozen beach for a break from the day’s tasks and to get some fresh air, crunching through the frosty sand and seaweed.&nbsp;&nbsp;Eventually I came upon some tracks that could only have belonged to a sea otter.&nbsp;&nbsp;I had seen him from a distance in the late summer, a rare sight indeed.&nbsp;&nbsp;I followed the five-toed footprints for a while, until they vanished and I found myself in a patch of low tidal rocks and egg wrack swishing this way and that in the rising tide.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I looked up to see how far I had gone, and decided to turn around and walk back, retracing my steps that ran parallel to the otter’s.</p> <p>Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted birds of black and white in the sky, flying in a flock and turning this way and that...</p> <p><br></p> <p>www.moniquesliedrecht.com</p>