Hiding Inside From Winter Winds

When it has snowed in the night you know it, even before you get out of bed. It is just different. The light is more subdued, sounds seem further away...so before I even came down the stairs, I knew there would be a carpet of white covering the yard, our fields, the forest. The tall grasses along the stream waved stiffly in the wind that gusted from time to time, dry and golden in contrast to the white crystal blanket that tucked in close to them.

We left a big fire going last night when we went to bed and so this morning the family room is not icy, so I made a fire first thing, before even starting the coffee. This time I was lucky and got it going first try. The dogs come next, bathroom break, then their breakfast and while Diesel is making all sorts of little pig noises behind me there, I put the coffee on.

Finally I can sit down across from the window in the family room. Tthe fire is crackling briskly now, and my mug of coffee sits on the table in front of me, steam rising gently in the warming air. Diesel and Lucy are on the couch beside me, still licking the taste of their breakfast off their lips. Even though I know that in a little while I am going to have to put on a couple sweaters and a vest, and a scarf and a jacket, etc., before I head out to take Ambra and Sierra out of their stalls for breakfast in the shelter, I am still glad for being in this place. My horsey girls have grassy fields to wander in until they die, a dry stall to sleep in when the rain is falling or the wind howling, and we have our wonderful woods to walk in.

After breakfast, Don and I did go for a walk in the woods. The sky was clearing and I wanted to see our woods with its winter dress on. We followed one of the trails that I had made in the summer. I had started the trail from the furthest corner of our woods and worked my way back to our little "roadway", and if I follow it from that direction, I can find it every time, but if like today, we try and follow it from the other direction, I get to a certain spot and then lose it every time. So we wandered a little bit and then as the wind was picking up, decided it was a good time to head back to the house.

And now as I sit writing here, the winter wind has picked up and every so often a gust tries mightily to squeeze through the edges of the door. But I can hear my fire still crackling briskly in the stove, so the wind can shriek and moan all it wants because we're warm and cozy.