Snowy Speculations

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If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
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Sunrise Reflection

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Sunrise Reflection

 Our first house was a little raised bungalow in the city. We bought the house and were thrilled with the greenspace behind us. Just a few years into our marriage, this land started getting developed and we began looking for another home.

I think that is one of the reasons I appreciate some of the open spaces around us so much. We are minutes to Old Town, Virgil and St. Davids. Every morning when I look out the window at the endless rows of vines that seem to stretch all the way to the escarpment, I am awed by the streaks of vibrant orange and red at the edge of the horizon announcing the start of a new day.

The sunrise this morning is especially stunning and taking a picture on my iPhone never equals the true quality of what I see before me. With the Christmas holidays approaching quickly and my kids still nestled in their beds, I doubt that visions of sugarplums are dancing in their heads. But I do think that the world around me is still sleeping in peaceful slumber. Not a car single car has driven by and the rooster next door has only started announcing that morning has indeed broken.

This is my favourite time of the day. My husband leaves for work while it is still dark and I get to have moments of quiet to reflect on the day ahead of me. I survey the twinkling of the frosty ground that crunches underfoot while I take the dogs out. My eyes continuously search the rows of vines ahead of me for any movement. Animals seem to feel safe in this semi-light/semi-darkness where they are still hidden but have enough light to go their way.

Yesterday, while I was standing at the dining room sliding door, two coyotes bolted out of the vineyard and into the neighbouring forest. A tuxedo cat that seems to enjoy endless hours of catching mice in the ditches on our road, sat unnoticed a hundred feet away from them. I held my breath as they bolted past it, one after the other. As soon as they disappeared into the thicket, the cat got up and sprinted out of there, as far away as possible from these predators that would surely have made it their breakfast!

But in this moment, as I turn away from my laptop and look out the window, the burnt orange sky of just minutes ago has now muted into a warm palette of pale peach, like a streak of diluted watercolour across the December sky. I know this colour will soon be gone. But just as the cycle of life continues around me - cats waiting for their meals in the ditches and coyotes streaking across the field chancing the dash across the road - I know that tomorrow's sky will be just as vibrant and beautiful to enjoy and hope that this sunrise will fall on a blanket of snow and reflect nature's beauty at Christmas just a mere ten days away!

Lolita Schimann Hale

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