portents of

I'm taking a deep breath now. Finished with Christmas making and shopping - I don't do frenzied mall shopping anymore. I knit, order online, shop locally. This year though, some things I'd ordered got lost in the mails for a week. I left the house early this morning to pick up the order that finally arrived and get it ready to send off again in the other direction. As I drove quickly down my dirt driveway ready to turn onto the road out, I noticed this horse standing perfectly still at the fence. An immediate case of personification kicked in and I imagined him wondering why I was in such a hurry.  I stopped the car, got out and, murmuring to him, took this picture. I'm sure his curious sideways stare and calm energy infused me because when I got back into the car I felt not only calmer but realized how lucky I was to be out in the strangely warm morning on a soft gray day having had an encounter with another warm blooded creature.

When I drove back out again later in the day to mail the packages this horse and his three companions (all identical with white face stripe) were racing around their field. A sign, I've learned, that the weather is changing. And sure enough, as I write this, dark clouds are forming over the moutaintops threatening snow up there. Horses know these things.

I don't know if you can see it clearly, but these bare trees are alive with birds. Hundreds of starlings (I think) had landed in two nearby trees. By the time I got the door opened, camera in hand, they'd flown up into the air, circled around a couple of times and landed in trees further away. They seem to be gathering for something. And no, it's not like a scene from The Birds - well, maybe just a little - because at this moment, there are many more of them in the trees.....