WINTER PLEASURES

     Foggy morning here at home. Fog seems to create some beautiful images that makes everything sparkle and alive! I don't often get out early enough to take pictures of the beauty of a foggy morning, but did today. What a way to start the day!
     Winter can be depressing with the cloudy, dark days, the cold, the ice, and the isolation that seems to come with those things. This year I've decided to look for the beauty in winter.
     I remember as a child and even into my young adult life, how I loved to get out in the snow. Dad used to pull us behind the car on a sled or a toboggan. The roads we lived on out in the country were dirt roads and there was very little traffic.Can you believe that of Sunnyside road now, that is where we lived! Anyway, we would dress warm and out we would go on wintry days. We would build snowmen, we would sled down the drifts, we would have snowball fights, we would make snow angels. And yes, we would get cold. On Sundays after church a friend and I would put go to Sand Creek, put on our ice skates, and skate a mile south to another friends house. There we would play board games until almost dark, put our skates back on and head home.
     When we lived in Ammon with our young family, there was a time when we had snowmobiles. Sometimes, on clear full-moon winter evenings, we would dress warm in our snowmobile suits and get on those machines and head for the foothills. We had to be careful for about 3 miles, and then there would be no traffic. We would go up Sunnyside to the Bone Road, and turn North coming back down the Lincoln hill to Foothill Road, and back to our Ammon home. What an invigorating evening ride that would be. Often we would take the kids with us, pile them on in front and behind us. Sometimes it would just be Boyd and I.
     We no longer have snowmobiles, and the cold seems to penetrate through to the bone in our old bones. But there are still things I can enjoy about the winter season. It is a time of less daylight and more nighttime. This gives me more time to relax. Even though the calving is a time consuming job, Boyd can spend more time in the house, if for no other reason than a cup of hot chocolate and getting warm.
     When we had the blizzard a week ago, I thoroughly enjoyed that. I love the sound of the wind at anytime, and especially when I'm trying to sleep. Boyd had the cattle close to the sheds, we still had electricity, and we we were warm in the house. What else could we want.
     The fresh snow on Monday morning with the drifts were beautiful, no tracks in the snow at all. No dirt blown into it, no marring of the beauty. I didn't take a picture then but should have.
     I have enjoyed walking over to Derrald and Debbie's home this past week and vi sting with them. I don't usually take the time to do that. I need now to take time to get in touch with people that I haven't heard from in quite some time. I did get a phone call from Lacey, a granddaughter this week that I enjoyed!
     Looking out my kitchen window the other morning, I saw a huge bald eagle in a tree over by Derrald's home. I watched it for a few minutes and then went to get my camera. When I got back to the window, the eagle was gone. I'm glad I took the few minutes to enjoy the sight even if I didn't get to preserve it.
     Yes, Spring will be coming soon, and then summer, busy busy times. But there is no need for me not to enjoy winter: the crisp cold air; the falling snow; the fog; the quiet that seems to permeate the air this time of the year more than any other.