That Time of Year

There are things I really enjoy about this time of year. Two mornings past, while drinking my cup of coffee and watching the morning news, a movement out the window caught my eye. Our house is in a bit of a transition phase (also known as building). Actually, we've been building it for the past 4 years. One transition that occurs every half year is that of re-purposing rooms based on which rooms are done, which rooms will be soon worked on, and which rooms will see no improvement for the foreseeable future. Since our house also goes through some fairly significant traffic changes, the number of occupants is also considered.

In our current state, what is supposed to be an office and spare bedroom is our living room. This is due to the fact that the room hopefully future known as the living room is more like a garage since most of the tools and other sundry items are stored there. As the kitchen area will also be in that same physical great-room, the current kitchen is in sort of large hallway since I haven't put up the wall that will separate the actual smaller hallway from the future mud-room.

Whatever. The point is that the room I go to in the morning to drink coffee and watch the news looks over a sweep of land to the west. And there, across the thin, snowed matted grass of last year's horse pasture, loped three coyotes. Two were nearer; the third was right up against the far fence row. They were pretty calm but purposeful. As they curved north and further west, they entered a section of less grass and more weedy, brush like growth. They became very difficult to pick out as their color palette blended perfectly with the worn out shades of 5 month dead vegetation. By the time they made it to the north fence row I couldn't see them, although watching the horses gave me near GPS precision of their subsequent movements.

A day later it snowed hard and wet and left us with 6 inches that is now melting in sloppy, cold, muddy washes and puddles. The snowfall was beautiful and may be the last of the season. And some folk are returning to the county with that burst of energy that reminds you to look and enjoy what truly is an amazing place to live.

All that said, this is not my favorite time of year. In fact, it is probably my least. First of all, I like summertime activities the most. Second, I like heat and, finally, I find this time of year the hardest to deal with in terms of cold and wet and wind and it's hard to care for the animals and its hard to work outside and easy things, like flying out the door to go see the sunset over the bay, just aren't worth the effort.

But this is so clearly a time of change. I saw the first returned sandhill crane a few days back (my personal symbol of God-blessedness), and you can see where the creek in town enters into the harbor by the blue ribbon of melt cutting through the ice of the bay. In a little over a month I'll be another year older (if you want to come to the party email me for my wish list), the sun will be up until almost 8:00 P.M., and the lady slippers will be preparing themselves to cheer on the runners for the park's annual half-marathon. Maybe I'll try the 5k this year.