snow!

I can actually hear in my mind what it would sound like walking through the woodland winter brush right now. Each step breaking the frozen grasses and twigs that crunch under foot. I can see and hear two deer crashing through the brush for an animal that needs to be wary this time of year they are not doing a very good job of being quiet

Snow is gently swirling around the backyard. It is not ready to land nor is it actually cold enough to really have a snow storm so for the moment it is like living inside a glass snow globe. I enjoy the pretty white flakes as they hesitantly fall from the sky.

 I realized once again that I have a "Winter Wonderland" right outside my window.    The mighty white pine's limbs sway gently in the cold wind that blows around our home. In any given moment you will see natures glorious ornaments flitting from limb to limb.  A male cardinal sits stoically in red splendor on a branch protectively watching his mate as she pecks at the birdseed around the feeder on the ground.  She fluffs her warm olive brown feathers to keep out the wind, cocking her lovely orange tufted head as listens to the sounds around her. There is such a contrast in the colors of these two birds.

The goldfinches flit in and out of this little scene seemingly always on high alert. The sun shining on their golden wing and neck markings in sharp contrast to their cousins the housefinches whose muted warm browns and purples,  pretty in their own right, perch on the feeders' edge busily eating in a group.

The red headed woodpecker takes charge of the one elongated feeder his size challenging the other birds to naturally stay away until he has had his fill.

Suddenly they all fly to the safety of the white pine and I look around there in the corner sits the neighbors cat eerily eyeing the scene from a completely different point of view!