In winter, it can be fun to decipher tracks left in the snow.

I sometimes make a little game of this as I’m going for a walk.

You can usually tell by the size and spacing of bootprints whether they were left by a man, woman, or child.

Tracks going to each house in turn clearly belong to the mail carrier.

Human footprints next to smaller, clawed ones indicate that a neighbour was walking the dog.

Dainty, single-file paw prints show that a cat was making its rounds, whereas a repeating W-shaped pattern of impressions indicate that a squirrel was hopping across the lawn.

And small bootprints that meander crazily like a butterfly are a sure sign that my four-year-old neighbour Noah passed this way!

What tracks are you leaving in life?

Will people want to follow in your footsteps?

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