This is the trail through the woods that we explored late one afternoon out in Montana. As you can see, the snow was soft and shallow under the trees, but it was abundant out in the open meadows, often a foot deep, and laced with pathways of deer, rabbit, coyote, and wild turkey.

I videotaped our strolls, showing the depressions in the snow where deer slept, where cabins hunkered down at the edges of meadows, and where rabbits burrowed into snowdrifts.

The air was crisp, and laced with the aroma of woodsmoke, and the snow seemed to muffle all sound, so that it was just the comments of family that kept the pathways company. My sister, dressed in a warm snowsuit, pointed out the solitary spruce that grew down in a culvert, and the hogan that was now covered in a mantle of snow. We walked until dark, angling out onto a road that lead to a small lake. It had homes along the shoreline, with window-lights shimmering golden upon the water and Canadian geese calling in the distance.

Twenty years ago, when Bonnie and I took this same winter walk, along the shoreline, I happened to look down, and I saw a solitary piece of paper embedded in the ice. It was a small list of grocery items. I reached down to crack the ice off the paper, to read the list, and much to my amusement, it was a list that I had made earlier in the fall! Bonnie and I had walked along here, and during the walk I must have reached into my pocket for a kleenex, and unknowingly pulled the list out of my pocket where it drifted down onto the shoreline. The onset of a winter storm trapped the paper in ice, and there we were, coming upon it, monthes later. We were so surprised and delighted.

One cannot describe the pleasure of arriving home from a winter walk without mentioning what awaits within the comfort of my sister's home - a warm fire at the hearth, hot coffee and a tasty meal! Just walking briskly out in mountain air seems to add a special zest to food.

Bonnie served marvelous meals: Fried zuchinni patties with shredded cheese; sliced green kiwi, Asian pears, purple grapes, provolone cheese, ham, and slivers of carrots on colorful salad greens; chicken paprika; lentil soup with hard-crusted bread on the side; spareribs and onions; brussel sprouts with sweet Gjetost cheese in the white sauce; collard greens with onion and bacon; acorn squash from the garden; marvelous home-made eggrolls filled with tiny shrimp and sprouts; that nutty flavored basmati rice with meat, onion, and celery; smoothies made with strawberries from the garden; homemade pecan pie a la mode; and two chocolate cakes made from scratch using dark, rich Hershey's chocolate! Morning coffee was by French drip, served with raw sugar and half'n'half. In the afternoon, Bonnie made frothy cappachinos with an espresso machine.

Unfortunately, I didn't photograph these meals, but I did videotape many images during my trip, and food preparation and the meals were a significant part of my filming. Bonnie's daughter Mel, and her grandchildren also did some of the cooking. I've since put the film on tape. Abundant mouthwatering images of food preparation are mixed in with the images of landscape, snow and ice, with wild turkeys strutting in pathways through the meadows and stellar jays and chickadees at the bird feeders. The combinations in my film are like a dance... our walks and then the mealtime preparations. Being snowbound out in the country, that about sums up a daily routine.