One-horse open sleigh ride

Lanterns in the woods. A fur blanket in our laps. A bottle of champage. A 2,300-lb. Belgian draft horse named Barney. European fallow deer eating from my hand. Under a clear sky filled with stars.

Mt. Hedgehog and Mt. Willard in snowshoes

This is the view from Mt. Hedgehog (in NH's White Mountains). There are clearly many more mountains that are higher -- easily done in the summer, but you won't catch me climbing them in the winter!

I was terrified coming down from Mt. Hedgehog on snowshoes. Going up in snowshoes (about 1,500 foot elevation gain) was hard work, yes, but no problem. Coming down? Yikes! The trail seemed so steep on the descent! Too steep for my comfort. I was definitely way outside of my comfort zone, but I made it down safely -- only one fall. And I was more tired that night after 5 hrs of snowshoeing than I've been after hiking in a very long time!

That was Saturday Jan. 31st. On Sunday Feb. 1, we did a more modest mountain in the Whites -- Mt. Willard. It takes just under an hour to get to the top. At the summit we spotted what I thought was a weasel. But after looking it up, we learned that it was a pine marten! Even better than sighting a deer or a moose. How many people can say they've seen a pine marten? In the wild, not in a zoo??