Morning Surprises

 One thing that December gifted to us was spectacular sunrises.

Almost every day, we were greeted by a south-eastern sunrise so beautiful it would make me pause just to appreciate it (and to photograph it as well!)

Yesterday, I traded morning photos via text with a dear friend who remarked that maybe snow flurries would follow the fiery morning show.

Sure enough, a couple hours later that is just what happened.

I was out bringing the horses back into the dry lot from their morning grazing as snowflakes danced gracefully towards the ground.  

What a morning it had been... two extraordinarily beautiful sights in a matter of hours!

Gus took the opportunity to thank me for giving him shelter from the snow.   (It's extremely difficult to capture the facial features on an all-black cat.)

(Unless the lighting is perfect.)

Beatrix #1

I am sure that all of our barn kitties (all of whom were at one time strays) are happy to have a warm, cozy home at this time of year.  No walk through the barn is complete without stopping several times to love on a few kitties.

By mid afternoon, the snow had disappeared from the surrounding countryside, but in our little cold pocket here on the farm, it lasted all afternoon.  That, in itself, made my little heart happy.

I spent a bit of time playing with watercolors.  I had seen this photo on Instagram, and wanted to try to paint it.

So peaceful... sitting with brush in hand as the snow fell outside my window.

My interpretation:

I did a little more un-decorating and took down the snowman quilt that hung in the kitchen, replacing it with this quilt that I made years ago...

It will serve as a good reminder to me to use up everything that I preserved from this summer's garden.

Now that Christmas is over and the gifts have been given, I also wanted to share with you what Jack made for one of our Colorado kids...

mountain bookends from black walnut.

And that, my friends, is all that's fit to print.  We'll see you tomorrow.