Many animals store, or cache, food when it’s abundant so they can reduce the risk of starvation later, when food might be scarce. Some animals, including bobcats and orb-web spiders, cache food for short periods of time—hours or days. Others, including red squirrels, Eastern chipmunks, gray squirrels and blue jays, cache seeds for much longer.

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Hardy flowers—Winter pansies in yellows and purples and flowering cabbages and kale in purples and whites will bloom throughout winter until temperatures drop into single digits.

Erica Gilliam says winter is a gardener’s time to dream. “Winter is absolutely the most ideal time to sit down with a blanket, cuddle up in the sunlight by a window and enjoy those plant and seed catalogs,“ said Gilliam, a master gardener in Henrico County. It’s also a time to ready your garden for spring. There are plants to prune, tools to clean, seeds to buy, structures to repair, compost heaps to turn and vegetable and flower beds to plan.

When it comes to getting outdoors during the winter months, Larry Rohr, Terry Rea and their disc golf compatriots follow the mail carriers’ code. “Neither rain nor snow . . . nor gloom of night” shall keep them from their appointed rounds.