Things Seen Thru The Window This Winter

Winter’s an interior time—the inclement weather, the cold, the deep snow & icy paths rendering much of the property inaccessible—all these combine to make the outdoors a world best appreciated from the comfort of a warm living room or kitchen.

Yesterday evening Eberle & I sat at the kitchen table & made an inventory of things we’ve seen thru the windows of our home so far this winter. A number of these are things we see each winter; some we’ve seen for the first time recently….

• The January full moon casting shadows on silvery snow.
• Small bundles of spruce needles where the Christmas tree was dragged thru the snow toward the garden.
• Quails & juncos eating cracked corn in this same path.
• A cedar bench covered in snow except for one corner of the seat
• Frozen apples on a wild apple tree
• A porcupine high in a poplar tree during a snowstorm
• The top of an artemesia plant sticking up thru a snowdrift
• A sheet of ice & snow creating a snow cave blocking the view from the dormer window
• A humungous sheet of ice & snow sliding off the porch roof onto a bird feeder—the metal pole on which the feeder hangs shook so much that the feeder was thrown almost onto the porch.
• Several quails perched in a pear tree during a snowstorm
• A bright red pepper, blown from a bundle of peppers drying on the porch, lying in the snow-covered driveway.
• A large black & white feral tomcat skulking around the bird feeder
• Our neighbors in the morning twilight hauling hay to their cattle with their four-wheeler,
• A mound of plowed snow beside the driveway blackened by thistle seed falling from a feeder in the willow
• Snowdrifts piling in white mounds up the metal spiral staircase outside our old house—these stairs lead to Eberle’s old studio.
• Fog descending from the foothills in the evening & surrounding Sage Hill
• A rainbow above Sage Hill—formed during a snow shower
• A brass solar lamp shining out from a snow well near the shop,
• Goldfinches & sparrows at the feeders; juncos gathering dropped seed on the snow below.
• Potting soil strewn on the paths to melt ice & snow.
• Quails standing on one of Eberle’s painted metal garden sculptures (a small corrugated metal culvert topped with a wheel spray-painted blue); from this spot they can reach one of the bird feeders.
• Shreds of tamarisk fronds scattered across the snow after a windstorm.
• The County road grader plowing Whiteman Lane & N. Gray’s Creek Rd
• An old white pick-up taking the corner on to N. Gray’s Creek Rd too fast—skidding—then righting itself.
• Two girls riding horses on N. Gray’s Creek Rd in the afternoon accompanied by three dogs.
• Our black cat walking on the path from the woodshed
• Our Manx tiger cat at the door in the morning
• Frozen water in the blue plastic cat bowl.
• Juncos eating thistle seed that’s spilled on the potting bench, apparently oblivious to the old black cat, who’s apparently oblivious to them.
• Our solar powered “Northern Lights” on the porch turning red, green, blue, amber & white after dark.
• A distant sodium light from a house on the ridge to the east.