POSITIVELY WINTER

by Mauverneen 

winter wonderland

To listen to the weather reports, the whole country is buried in several feet of ice and snow. While not quite true, most of us are getting our share.  Here – in the ‘burbs south of Chicago – it’s varied from town to town.  My little corner got 10 or 12 inches the past few days.

I woke up Sunday to a softly falling snow, the ground covered, the branches and evergreen boughs wearing blankets of white. Truly beautiful!
 

Squirrels jumped from branch to branch, avoiding the deeper snow down below. The birds were fighting for their places at the feeder and flashes of red and blue against the white caught my  eye. Deer and other animal tracks criss-crossed the yard. Of course I bundled up and headed outside with my camera.

 

I cleared a spot and scattered more bird seed, then tromped around in awe of the beauty nature was creating in front of me. It felt like I was living in a wedding cake!

It snowed all day, temperatures dropped, cars didn’t start and school got cancelled.

Getting colder!

That majestic winter wonderland had quickly turned into an inglorious frozen wasteland.

 

Frozen wasteland

I don’t mind the snow – I love it in fact.  It’s the cold that does me in. Frigid temps that make breathing painful, ice-covered steps that cause falls, ‘black ice’ on the roads that cause accidents, back-breaking shoveling that necessitates ice packs and pain killers for days. All that cold helps us appreciate the warm days, just as the cloudy days make us appreciate a sunny one. But I’d still rather do without it.

There was a rainbow in the sky yesterday morning. I know it felt like it snowed for 40 days and 40 nights. Turns out it was a ‘sun dog’.
A phenomenon that creates luminous spots of light on either side of the sun.

A winter rainbow!
 

I wish I could have seen the entire thing, but from where I sat, I got to see a rainbow. As a friend of mine said, “It‘s nice to have something good to say about Mother Nature today.” 

 

Indeed.

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