After Christmas, before New Year's Day

All around the wee church is a deep drifted blanket of snow at 7 this morning. The wind is just high enough to blow snow off the roof and onto the car, and fill in the front stoop.

The dogs are in heaven. They believe, I'm sure, that snow is God's creation just for them. They snorkle through it, investigate overnight visitors' scent and smells and roll around as if in ecstasy. Well perhaps it really is ecstasy for them. I will enjoy it later when I'm well dressed for it, but it wasn't too cold when we went out to fill the feeder and pour seed onto the deck and under the trees.

We won't be going much further today - snow still coming down and it looks as if it will be so all day long. I will be enjoying the remains of turkey and treats from an incredibly bountiful Christmas day spent with my sons and dogs up in Muskoka. We had a peaceful time, a warm and loving visit. We enjoyed walking with the dogs in the bush, watching a deer bound away in the opposite direction from the one the dogs had chosen to inspect, slipping through the trees and snowy hillocks, as the dogs raced over a hill an eventually returned panting and smiling.

Today I will begin my pledge to myself to resume writing daily, either the blog, the books, a journal. I will also read some books that have been sitting on my shelves, never opened by me.  A book with an inscription on the flyleaf dated 1923 - to my mother, a gift from her friend Helen. Fairy stories and myths from around the world, it's oldness catches my attention. As does that of another book Wood's Popular Natural History, a gold embossed cover with a bear imprinted in gold and black, caribou and whales, birds, flies and butterflies and a hugely horned wild plunging sheep...Inside this flyleaf it reads in very explicit and careful handwriting  "David H. Boddington's Book: Given him by his Father, July 19th 1893." What? I've never looked inside either of these books before. David Boddington was my grandfather, a gentle man who loved nature. I will really enjoy both these books and will describe them later. that is if you're as curious as I am.

In this photo the dogs check out sounds earlier.

They've been outside frequently since, loving what this morning is bringing.






Me? I'm still in my pajamas. I'm loving the morning as well.

And so the mourning doves join the sparrows on the deck, a first. The cardinal was in earlier to choose a few select seeds. Jays have feasted at another feeder, as have finches, nuthatches and the cheerful chickadees.
May you have a wonderful day today, in between the two big end/beginning of season celebrations. May your day and the rest of this year be filled with things, people and experiences that you love or enjoy (hopefully both). And I hope too that you head into a new year filled with excitement, anticipation and a sense of fun and adventure.