Mid February reverie

 
I spent a good deal of time this morning shoveling after yesterday’s snow. The storm dumped a lot and there was a good breeze all day keeping the temperature below zero and giving us some drifts. The snow even blew to the front and dusted the hedgehogs and forget about the teal fox, his perch is under a foot of snow right now. See you later, teal fox. Our weather this morning was fantastic, startling cold but sunny. Once I cleared the snow from the driveway and the walks, they dried. And on cue, as it is ordained, the city’s snow plow came just as I finished and pushed three feet of snow in front of the mailbox and made a nice dune at the edge of the driveway. No harm, at least he was able to create a lane for driving in the cul-de-sac. And since the snow was powder it was light and easy to move.
 

Before I came in, I took the opportunity to make a snow angel on the deck. It’s going to be cold for the next day or so and more snow may arrive tomorrow. But we’re warm and don’t need to go out for work, so a lazy morning shoveling snow is a luxury.

 

The birds on the other hand are hustling. I have three feeders out with seeds and two suet feeders. Also, every day I spread some seeds out and about for those birds that don’t do feeders. So today the cardinals and black birds (including red-winged blackbirds!), dark eyed juncos and sparrows were on the deck and the starlings were attached to the suet feeders front and back of the house. At one point this afternoon I could see a perfect brown ball in the lilac bush and it was the Brown Thrasher that showed up yesterday during the worst of the snow. Poor thing.

 Late this afternoon I took a picture of the lonely pine and its giant shadow across the snow and it reminded me of the pine that was in our pasture in Klamath Falls. That particular tree showed up in a lot of pictures, some poems and we buried the old dog, Red, there; he was a good dog and had a great place to rejoin earth.

 
The best part of the day was not thinking about politics or the pandemic. I was able to throw snow and watch the thousand crystals catch the light, hear the red-winged blackbird’s song, laugh with my neighbor as the snow plow re-buried her daughter’s car and marvel at the bluest sky I’ve seen in quite a while. Be safe, be kind.