I take each day as given...

In my current life, I don't use an alarm clock (usually), but wake when my body tells me to.  Or sometimes when my mind tells me to.  I lay there half awake and my mind starts the morning todo list.  Sometimes the listing wakes me fully and I roll out of bed and head upstairs to greet the day.  First stop is to the cookie jar, a good morning treat for the cat and dog who own us.  Next, is the coffee machine, then the computer.

I have always been an early riser, so my mornings are usually starting around sunrise, sometimes a little before, sometimes a little after.  Today, the windows were just starting to glow with a little brightness, but you could tell there were clouds up above you.  As the computer came to life and I logged on to the day, I saw that we had another winter advisory on the weather site my browser is bookmarked to.  More snow.  Yipee...

The last few winters have been fairly mild here near the bay in Maryland, but this year we were experiencing a number of named winter storms (they name winter storms now) that have traveled through our area, piling just a little more snow on the last few storms' snow.  It has all mostly fallen crisp and soft as the temperatures had stayed below freezing for a number of days in a row, but had turned to a hard crust with some near thaws and refreezes at night.  Another layer was arriving.

I worked a couple of hours on some museum task and looked outside to see more flakes falling.  Ginger came in to see if I was interested in taking her for a walk, so we headed out to our beloved nearby woods.  As I mentioned in my post about Schramm's Woods, this place has become magical for me.  I really enjoy walking on the trails in this small 11 acre plot.  It is always calming for me.

Ginger is looking for Mr Fox

We crunched through the snow along the trail and headed towards the campsite on Homeless Trail.  The flakes were ranging from small specks of snow to large clusters of flakes and was falling through a windless morning.  We continued on and did the Schramm Trail and found ourselves it the field edge where the foxes climb under the fence.  I stood still and just stared into the forest, looking for movement, but mostly listening to what I could hear.  Ginger checked for fox smell and wandered about.

There was some bird warbling in the woods.  I didn't recognize the species, but it was soothing.  Next a Blue Jay started calling from the tallest branch on the tallest tree along the fence line of the field.  He kept shouting his name over and over, waiting for another to answer and before long, one does.

Tallest branch of the tallest tree

We continue along on our walk.  Moving along the edge of the field to the top of Hill Trail. We head down the hill and start heading out of the woods.  As we exit the woods, I hear a Blue Jay (the same one? maybe another) shouting his name again and again.  I look to the tallest branch on the tallest tree in the area, but he is not there.  I try to find him in the surrounding trees, but he is elusive.

Heading up the hill

We follow the streets home that have already acquired a new coat of white and head inside, where it is warm and dry and I reflect on the walk.  I think we both enjoyed the walk, we always do.  It is March 1st and it is snowing, but that is ok.  I take each day as given and always try to find the good things that are part of every outside thing.

LLAP,
EarthTone