The day after snowfall

Even though I am sick of snow and cold, I still enjoy the day after a storm when the sun comes out and the landscape is once again refurbished and shiny. Today was one of those days with around a foot of new, rather powdery snow glittering in the morning light. Shadows of bare bushes stood out in sharp contrast to the white background, as if etched with a finepoint stylus.

A squirrel made his morning run from the willow (out of sight on the right) under the back side of the bushes to make sure all was right in his world. No other tracks revealed the presence of another living creature until . . . . . some feathered visitor landed under the bird feeder and hopped around it, wondering where all the fallen sunflower seeds had gone.

As morning lengthens toward noon, another critter left his tracery on the way back part of the yard - too small to be a squirrel, but too extensive to be another bird: You have to look carefully to see a widespread Vee-shape which looks like the bottom of a valentine heart and then a squiggly line which heads back toward the compost bins, which makes me wonder if it is a mouse or a vole perhaps enjoying the layers of leaves and grass clippings I thoughtfully provided for him this winter.

By tomorrow morning, the kaleidoscope will have rotated and the beauty of today will be replaced by changing patterns of light and shadow, imprints of animals, birds and humans and the shifting winds of the universe.