We had a little snow on the last day of fall.
The winter solstice. Out shoveling a few inches of powdery snow this morning, I heard the calls of a crow, a house finch, and a downy woodpecker. Soon after, I saw the crow—it flapped over into the neighbor’s yard to forage where the wind had cleared a bare stretch of ground. The day began windy and about 20° F, with a hazy sun. Here it is now shortly past 3 p.m., about an hour before sunset. This patch of planet is calm, gray, neutral, and colorless but for the deep greens of the conifers and the occasional splash of red in the ribbons of the wreaths on the grilles of passing pickups.
