New Light

Mt. Zion Rd., Warrington Twp., York County, Pennsylvania

The instant I stepped outside this morning to feed the chickens, I was greeted by the scream of a pileated woodpecker, warning all around of my appearance. A few steps later and I heard the twitters of the Eastern bluebirds, coming from the area of their hollow roost tree. It’s now light enough in the morning for me to see or hear a few birds other than the crows.

The crows are still about, sitting atop a utility pole like a referee, warily eyeing everything around them, just waiting to call “foul!” on something, anything they don’t like, which is really almost everything.

Here it is but a few days past midwinter and the difference from just last week is already noticeable. Winter can stay as long as she likes, as long as I can have the extra daylight of February to play in. Tomorrow might even bring snow. In a normal year a forecasted inch would not be worth mentioning, but this year is not a normal year. It’s the warmest and least wintery winter I can remember in what is now more than half a century (gack! How did that happen!) of remembering winters.

Yesterday morning the nearly full moon was the color of an old gold coin, rich and almost bronze. This morning the moon was a cold, bone white, with not a hint of yesterday’s rich shades. And in the east, the first weak hint of dawn’s color, instead of the black sky of winter’s night.

This morning the sky shows no hint of impending snow, as the morning is as clear and bright as you’d like. I hope the weather forecaster has it right for once.