The new year is here and already the middle of January is already past – last Monday actually.
We’ve had some bone chilling cold, lots of snow and wind to greet it, along with the local TV weatherman’s promise of some (very) slightly warmer days on the way.
Already I am looking forward to the annual “January thaw.”
So far, it doesn’t feel like it will ever be warm again. Most mornings lately, it has been frosty and that’s a bit of an understatement.
We aren’t there to see it, but I’ll bet there’s ice building up along the edges of the Tobacco and heavy frost on all of the trees, especially on the riverbanks. Add to that our first snowfall of the new year decorating the trees and bushes – It’s always a Christmas card out there.
It seems quiet, but during the daylight at least, there’s lots of birds storming the feeder. Unfortunately it’s been too cold to fill them, Jack said.
I don’t blame him. Jack is hard-pressed to keep the feeders full with all of the frantic activity out there, from the littlest chickadees (we have finally seen a few) to doves looking for a little something to eat that may have spilled on the ground underneath. Lately the birds fly up to the window when the feeders are nearly empty, as if to say, “You’re slacking off again!”
Makes me want to crawl right back into bed…..
January is a certainly a special time of year.
When I look out before dawn in the morning, sometimes the skies are so clear you feel like you could almost reach up and touch the stars.
When the sky looks like that you can almost see the frost in the air. I like those cold winter mornings when the sky is full of pinks and blues as the sun comes up. We have had a few of those mornings already this year.
At the old house on the Tobacco, before we remodeled, winter mornings in our old house (trailer) were especially beautiful. We had those old jalousie single pane windows and they would be covered in frost pictures lit by the early morning sunlight.
They reminded me of years ago, waiting for the school bus to come around the corner in the morning. Sometimes it would be so cold that I would watch through the frost on the windows at a white still world. It looked like the pictures in my favorite storybooks, pinks and blues in the sky streaking the snow with rainbow colors in the early morning light.
We don’t have those old non-efficient windows anymore, but I still enjoy watching the sun come up on a frosty morning and
For me winter doesn’t have many redeeming qualities, but I think January sunrises are perhaps the most beautiful of the whole year. In January, the sun comes up late, but once it starts, full daylight arrives in a very short time. For a few minutes you can see that magical quality to the light, full of colors and sometimes with frost dressing the trees and bushes around the yard with an extra lacy collection of frost.
It’s a great time to relax with a cup of coffee, or a good time to take a walk – if you are brave enough.
It almost makes me like winter. Now if I could just keep my feet warm…