More of Massachusetts opens soon.
New video
For about 150 years, Massachusetts had no beavers at all. A few wandered in from New York in 1928, three more were set free in Lenox in 1932, and the state's last estimate is about 70,000. Right now they're sinking branches into the mud at the bottom of the pond: a pantry they'll swim out to under the ice all winter.
Right outside
When a thin, milky veil of high cloud slides over the sun, its ice crystals can bend sunlight into a huge pale ring, or bright spots on either side. Block the sun with your fist and look beside it.
Look closer
Queen Anne's lace, mullein, and thistle wait out the cold as flat circles of leaves pressed to the soil, where some soak up enough sun to sit warmer than the air. Crouch at a lawn edge and count the leaves on one.
Look up
Dazzling Jupiter and a small red spark of Mars draw within about two full-Moon widths of each other in the east. Two mornings later the Leonid meteors stream from right beside the pair.