2013 starts out cold

January 1, 2012 started with a beautiful moon with ice rings around it.  Cold and unforgiving if you are outside to start the New Year

As the sun came up you could see all our little feathered friends in the trees attempting to stay warm and hoping for the feeder to be filled. Birds need lots of feed to keep the furnace going in their little bodies.

Even the church and the flag behind the trees were covered in frost and frozen on this first day of 2013.

The landscape might be cold and frozen but there is a lot of beauty to still be seen as everything is covered with a fresh coat of white. The sky so white it is hard to distinguish the horizon line.

 As the clouds drop down to the ground in spots you can see the reason they were so white is that all the moisture in them is frozen. Makes the view hard to see but it coats everything it touches and you see patterns in the trees and brush that you never notice when it is sunny and clear.

The winter can be such a lonely place as this deserted corral just waits frozen awaiting spring roundups where lots of action will then be taking place. Now it waits in its frozen glory.

A child's bike brings out feelings of loneliness as it awaits the laughter and company of a young child, now it is forlorn and forgotten just sitting in the snow.

I lived where it stays the same season year around and I thank God I live in an area that has 4 very distinct seasons. By the time winter is over I will no longer be seeing all this beauty but wishing and waiting for the cold to go away and the flowers to replace the snow.

By the time spring has been here for awhile I am going to be tired of the rain and wishing for sun and warmth to go camping.

By the time summer has been here I am so tired of being hot and sticky and everything so dried out and the dust. I do love the air after a summer thunderstorm, the fresh smell delights the senses.

And then you open the door one morning and you can smell fall, a crispness in the air. A frost on the pumpkin, the leaves are turning the beautiful colors, the geese are headed south with their songs in flight.

Yep, it is winter again. Each season has its good things about it and its bad but each is so beautiful in its own way and I love all of them. Thank you God for my 4 seasons.