Monday, January 11, 2010

Winter sky.


I heard this quote on The Writer's Almanac this morning and liked it:

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." -William James.

It was a bitter cold day here--19 degrees when I left the house at 7 AM--and I feel like I never did get warm today. My feet, especially, have just been freezing all day. I do like the clear sky when it's very cold, though--shades of blue and lavender and gray, with pinks in the early morning and early evening. You can see the lines of the tree branches against the light sky, it's so beautiful.

We have a small hawthorne in the front yard that shot up from a dropped seed several years ago, and it has become what I think of as "the bird tree" with anywhere from three to thirty birds on it at a given moment, all perched with their feathers puffed up like little pincushions. Since the tree is completely naked and the branches are very straight and streamlined, the birds really stand out. I suppose I should scatter some seed for them, but then I'd have sunflowers coming up in the flower beds all summer long.


I didn't take the above picture, I found it on Flickr, but it does look a lot like what I see in the neighborhood every day. Maybe this week I can get a good shot of the bird tree, if I bundle up and sit very still on the front porch!

5 comments:

Mimi said...

Beautiful post - I've just begun catching The Writer's Almanac, and I love it.

That is beautiful! I think one of the blessings of winter (other than sweaters) is the beauty of it. It makes up for the bitter cold. Almost.

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Hideaway Girl said...

What a great quote. Also a big fan of a beautiful winter sky. Very rare these days - we get smog and inversions instead.

We have a lot of birds in our yard as well. I think they like seeds from all the wild flowers and the rotten shriveled up fruit still clinging to some of the tree branches. A few years ago we hung a bird feeder in one of the trees and now the peskiest plants/weeds keep growing as a result of the seed dropping - I only wish they were sunflowers! Actually, I'd take any sort of green at this point.

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Anonymous said...

That is a great picture. I love the trees in winter--they look like lace to me.

Enjoyed your Christmas Journal!! Loved the style.

Best wishes in the new year!
Penny in Missouri