Winter

The snow yesterday was absolutely beautiful as it fell, and, as long as I was looking out the kitchen window to the back yard, after it fell. Our pergola was the perfect winter picture: the table and chairs that welcome us in the summer sat silently as the snow became both tablecloth and seat cushions. Wisteria branches were redolent with white rather than lavender. Dusk came and the snow still sifted down, sparkling through tree branches as the lights from the motion sensors hit it. I couldn't tear myself away from the kitchen window, as I watched the soft and quiet, listening to the silence of the January evening.

Today, the magic was gone, as the sun came out and melted the white stuff and exposed the street and its gray imperfections. One of my regulars at court showed up to shovel the walk, and was surprised to see me at the door. Cars traveled fast down the street, turning the lovely powder lining the street a dingy brown speckled with black and dirt. Work and my computer beckoned, and so out my office window, minute by minute, I watched the landscape change from lovely to Missouri winter.

But the back yard still looks gorgeous. Found Fluffy tracks aren't really visible in the yard, and the table and chairs on the pergola and the wisteria branches over it are still dressed in their white finery. Safe and warm, I can look out into the yard and be mesmerized once again by winter as it should be instead of how it usually appears.