Snow and Ice

Gate at Ivy Lane

Before anyone in my life ever "went to Jarod's"

God gave me diamonds with the fire of the universe in them.

Snow covered fields sparkled with them in evening light and

at dawn I awoke to their pleasures all around me.

I wore them in my hair as they fell in faceted beauty,

I have never looked so beautiful

or felt so loved.

The snow that has covered our landscape here in the mountains is like confectioner's sugar. The snowflakes were tiny and icy and the resulting snow is soft and powdery. Driving into town yesterday I saw hay bales with a covering of snow that made them look like big wheat biscuits with a sugar icing.

It is bitterly cold again this morning and the dryness of the air makes it hurt to breathe outside. I find myself covering up my face and pulling the hood on my jacket up till it forms shields along the sides of my head. Of course it's hard to see where you are going with all that stuff going on around your face!

When I was walking Bella on the leash in Fayetteville I noticed that sometimes the cars just seemed to appear from nowhere. We would be walking along and I would lift my head to see a car coming up behind me. I began to question my ability to hear well…I am getting older. I finally realized that the cars that seemed to sneak up on us were running on batteries! These "stealth cars" add a whole different dimension to city walking. At home here on Ivy Lane, Bella gets to run unleashed most of the time. Mary Oliver has a poem in her book, "Dog Songs":

You may not agree, you may not care, but

if you are holding this book you should know

that of all the sights I love in this world -

and there are plenty - very near the top of

the list is this one: dogs without leashes. 

(Mary Oliver. Dog Songs. New York: The Penguin Press. 2013.  Page 9)