EXCUISITE MOISTURE 2/20/25

I do love trees. Especially in winter when the deciduous ones have shed their lovely leaves to reveal their inner architecture.

This winter has been especially cold with temperatures below normal. I felt it more acutely when my furnace stopped running. The furry ones and I were chilly for four days before a repair person could pay us a visit.

When the house returned to a toasty 65 degrees, a series of days filled with unusual weather patterns blew in from the north.

We enjoyed everything from freezing rain to snow to fog and back to snow. Mother Nature certainly had her way with us! We live in a high desert climate so unless it is a nourishing rain, humidity, like fog, is an unusual occurrence. Driving in it was hazardous.

However, each weather change brought with it a delight of imagery and magical illumination.

I have a favorite cottonwood tree that posed as a standing fashion model as her outfits were changed. Once draped in fog, then wrapped in ice and finally flaunting a fresh coat of snow.

I couldn’t help but shiver for the beings that live out in the elements during this time. The angus cows are bred to birth their infants in the dead of winter.

Small mammals around the barn sneak into whatever tunnels will guide them toward warmth.

This beautiful world, these precious days.

“I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree “by Joyce Kilmer, is said to mean that the speaker believes no poem written by humans can ever be as beautiful as a natural tree. It is a statement about the awe-inspiring power of nature.”