Winter Sunrise
The two mornings this weekend could not have been more different. I woke early on one morning to take some photographs of a stand of trees with sunlit brown leaves that have their own magic color in winter. It was cold but sunny, you could hear the bird sounds that seem to increase every day at this time of year, and I saw the first robin of the season - spring must be here soon. And though I knew the forecast was for a little snow later in the evening, it just didn't seem like it would happen.
It happened. And so I got up an hour before sunrise and left the house to go wander again in some fields and woodlands. On my drive, I just couldn't believe how everything was lined in white. Surely I must have seen this before in the fifty-plus winters I have lived through - but it felt like I was seeing it for the first time. The light was a beautiful blue-white and everything was lined in white - no hint of wind had yet knocked any of the snow off the branches.
I was in the parking lot getting my camera out when I turned around and saw this scene. Shapely trees, branches lined in white, and a beautiful soft blue and rose coloring in the sky. If you look close, you can see the blue "earth shadow" midway in the frame, below the rose colored band in the sky. I enjoyed the next three hours wandering through the fields, watching everything change before my eyes. The sun came up, lighting everything in a golden light for thirty minutes. The same bird sounds I heard yesterday were there today - but seemingly a little out of place. And I would start to hear, then see, the wind gusts - first coming as a light roar and then resulting in a blowing cloud of snow.
Hopefully this is the last of the snow this winter. I much prefer the warmer weather - but with mornings like this, I don't mind a little bit of winter!