The snow continues to come down. Winter has no intention of relenting until it's good and ready, and I'm starting to feel like a character in "Dr. Zhivago." Perhaps it's just my cabin-feverish mind playing tricks on me, but I'm expecting Yuri to show up any minute in a horse drawn sleigh.
Yesterday morning, I looked out the kitchen window and framed in the upper portion were three blue jays in perfect triangulation on the bare crab apple tree next to the feeder. The combination of blue feathers, grey throats, and the gray branches they sat on, with snow drifting down around them, looked like a scene in a snow globe, lightly shaken.
I sometimes wish I could design and create snow globes, add them to the small snow globe collection I began when traveling, where the criteria seems to have been the more kitschy the better. From time to time I would look in antique stores hoping to find an old one from some intriguing place I hoped to visit one day. I never found any there, but I know someone who has a few older ones and I have often looked at them longingly. Perhaps I need to solidify our friendship.
But first, I think I'll become better acquainted with the blue jays outside my window, and maybe that pine tree, the one that appears to be wearing an ermine cape wrapped around its shoulders. I wonder if it knows when Yuri is arriving ...
Back when I lived in the place of ice and snow, I treasured winters (and springs) with deep and wet snows. Much better than the years when high winds mixed a little snow flurries with the dust, which made my skin crawl. You live in a magical place and time of space and mind.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning! Thank you for that lovely reminder of the beauty of snow. It is a gorgeous day, really, with bright blue skies... yes, "a magical place and time of space and mind." Beautiful. Thank you so much.
DeleteI love snow, but am really tired of it...and the cold. Yesterday it was 80 in KC, and today 40. I can't imagine being in your neck of the woods. Do you and Buddy get out very much???
ReplyDeleteI do love it, as well, but it's also cold and it's lingered a little too long at this range of temps. Blue skies though, and that makes for a beautiful day any time. :) We get out every day for a walk unless below 0, It's been impossible to go in the meadow though and run. He spends a good part of the day outside on a fairly long tether... the road is too close for comfort... That's quite the range for temps there...
DeleteSnow is part of my past. As a child I made snow slides, forts, and snow angels. Would I like to be around snow full time again -- Hmm -- need to think about that. Good post.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, and ice skating on a pond in the yard... It's been a winter much like those I experienced when young. It should make for a very lush spring and maybe even summer.
DeleteWe are lucky to live an area that actually has four seasons. We get to experience the beauty that each has to offer. If you're looking forward to spring, it'll arrive soon enough. This transition requires resilience for many. I'm in no hurry for winter to pass, but I'll enjoy the warmer weather when it is here.
ReplyDeleteI think you're an Eskimo at heart, Bill. :) I do appreciate your enthusiasm for the cold and snow. It's been encouraging to me.
DeleteNope Abenaki, but that's close enough.
DeleteWhat a nice sounding name for a First Nations tribe. Absolutely close enough...
DeleteSo let us know if Yuri shows up with that sleigh, Teresa. That could be grand, indeed it would, but, then that triad of bluejays is also quite grand.
ReplyDeleteThe snow is mostly melted here, save the mounds of where the plows did their work, now all dirty looking. We can still get a blizzard; in March.
I love snow globes; they bring a fantasy about of another world, don't they/ Hope you find some you are really looking for. Stay warm.
It's a real toss-up, Penny, which I enjoy more, the blue jays or the idea of Yuri. :) I do love my snow globes and hope to find some very special ones to add to my collection. Yes, it is cozy in here and very pretty out there. Thanks, Penny.
DeleteAs a child I loved snow globes, they are magical. And jays are beautiful birds.
ReplyDeleteYes, to both. :)
DeleteBlue jays are gorgeous birds until they start squawking! I love the perky little chickadees. True, they're much less dramatic but they're so endearing the way they brighten up a day.
ReplyDeleteThey can be noisy, but they are beautiful. Yet, there is something awfully nice about those sweet little chickadees.
DeleteFear not, I saw a robin today. He was singing, and it wasn't the blues!
ReplyDeleteThank you, John, for the encouraging word.:)
DeleteI watched a couple of blue jays hopping around the still-bare limbs of our Japanese Maple this morning. It sounds like winter has not yet released her grip on you. Here, she has all but surrendered to spring. It's still brown, but we're fixing to have a green explosion. :) I hope you enjoy winter's final act. :)
ReplyDeleteA Japanese Maple. what beautiful sounds those words make. :) Spring still feels a long way off, and we're scheduled for up to another foot of snow on Monday. The fun never ends. I'm so grateful the sky was blue today... that makes all the difference for me. Thanks for your comment. I needed cheering this evening... :)
DeleteWhen I go out and hear the jays I enjoy that they are sending an alarm out of new critters in their forest.It is a good luck feature when I hunt mushrooms to have them greet me and see some yearling deer in one area I go to.
ReplyDeleteThe jays are such lovely additions to the woods, aren't they?
DeleteLately when I read your blog and see your photos I feel as though winter has passed us by here. Well, there will be other winters.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, always another waiting up ahead...
DeleteHej Teresa, I love the snow landscape too - it's like a fairy tale, like walking in the snow queen's land. Unfortunately it only lasts a few days here, because of the weather change. The winter days were good days when we were children, with the sledge and the ice skates. That was really a great time, and while thinking of it I can feel the fresh winter air on my cheeks.
ReplyDeleteBut - now we'll get lots of snow and snow drift to-morrow and the present weather forecasts on the net are precise. No matter how beautiful it might look outside I long for spring and sun and lots of flowers!! And I'm so tired of my winter coat!
Have a nice Sunday
Hej Buddy!
Teresa I love that photo of the beautiful house in the snow. Where is it from?
Grethe ´)
Grethe, I'm so pleased to hear from you. I've missed you. We are expected to receive up to another foot of snow tomorrow... I'm glad I made a big pot of vegetable stew. It is the bundling up I am growing weary of, and looking forward to my bare foot days again. ;) Buddy loves the snow, but not the cold so much. The smells of the coyotes along the river are keeping him on his toes...
DeleteThe images are from the movie, "Dr. Zhivago." It was my favorite movie for many years...
I loved Dr Zhivago....especially the dacha in the snow scenes and of course the daffodil field, how beautiful they made it seem. And you too have given me a haunting mind-painting of the blue jays in the snow fall! Ooh cold so cold but exceedingly beautiful, although then there are those coyotes to contend with, scary! We don't have Blue-Jays or coyotes never the less I can see them, hear them in your description Teresa...thank you so much,(and for your words today on my blog x)
ReplyDeleteHugs Jane
Jane, I love your comment, mingling the sounds and sights with the coyotes, which I hear often. It adds to this wonderland of sight and sound. Again, best thoughts are with you as another beautiful day begins!
DeleteHe will arrive on one of those big old steam trains with a snow plough on the front and a red Russian Star proclaiming the revolution.
ReplyDeleteAlan. Your comment. It's Perfect. Thank you so very much.
DeleteDear Teresa, how are you doing with the digging out from the snow--with one falling coming after another???? Peace.
ReplyDeletePlowing every few days and shoveling needed every day ... spring seems a long way off...
DeleteBeautiful writing, Teresa. "...three blue jays in perfect triangulation..." You have a sweet sensitivity to the beauty of the world, a woman with the eyes of a child ... there is nothing more beautiful.
ReplyDelete... except, perhaps, a man who is also capable of seeing with the eyes of a child and understands this ... as you do. Thank you, sweet man...
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