But pitchers and catchers!

We woke up today to a winter wonderland.

It wasn’t a surprise. Snow started falling yesterday, and we were warned it would go all night, then be followed by a polar plunge in temperature. Yep, that happened.

What surprised me: I didn’t hate it. It was fluffy and beautiful, and pretty light for shoveling, and because I worked from home today I didn’t have to drive in it.

It came with grey skies, of course—but nothing unusual there. My first reaction was to grab my camera. My second was to give the dogs a quick walk before the arctic cold set in, and I couldn’t help pulling out my camera in the middle of that, too. Snow isn’t always pretty, but when it is—oh boy!

I came home with fingers stiff from cold but spirit soaring. All that white made the world seem bright and cheery even without any visible sun.

I’m telling you, though, spring’s on the way. It’s 12°F outside and headed down to -2°F overnight (not counting wind chill), but yesterday pitchers and catchers reported for (White Sox) spring training, and they had their first workout today. So take that, winter! You’re outta here.

Random coincidence? I took this picture of my snow-dusted seats from Old Comiskey Park before I realized that spring training was starting. Truth.

Of course, we still have this (cross-your-fingers) last arctic blast to deal with. I hope the pictures make it easier to enjoy.

February in Chicago. I saw the sun for about five minutes out my office window during the morning, but it didn’t start snowing until just before I was ready to leave for the day. Mixed news, that. On the bright side, it gave me a chance to walk outside for five minutes to photograph the gray day for my sunshine journal.

(This is my sunshine journal. Enjoy.)

What interested me most wasn’t the sky per se but how indistinguishable its color was from the ice on the pond outside my office. So I photographed the pond, through tree trunks, and that’s what you see here.

Also interesting, though differently, was the number of nests I noticed for the first time in the nearby trees—at least three of them in a pretty small space. This is one of them, empty, probably abandoned, though something might claim it again in the spring.

And although the temperature is supposed to be in the single digits in the next couple of days, I know that spring is coming, and so do the birds. My garden hasn’t woken up yet—a good thing, actually, given the weather outlook—but it will soon.

Meanwhile, my little poem Pomegranate was published today as part of a wonderful Valentine’s Day poetry collection on Escape into Life, and I couldn’t be more pleased. It’s just 10 lines, but it too reminds me of the warm air of summer. I’m honored to be in much more accomplished company in this collection. Read the other poets, even if you don’t like mine.

I wore my sunglasses today!

The sun peeked out this morning, played hide-and-seek in the clouds for much of the day, and claimed the sky by the time I left work. I wore sunglasses during my commute in both directions; it might have been optimistic in the morning, but I 100% needed them in the afternoon. As I write, I’m sitting by the window where I can see the sun still shining bright.

Boy, have I missed you, golden treasure! And I know I’m not alone; you’re what people are talking about, both in person and on social media.

I also know that snow’s supposed to be coming tomorrow, but honestly right now I don’t care. I’m living in the moment.

Gratitude journal

So that’s #1 on my list of what I’m grateful for today, but it’s not alone. I had a slow morning commute due to a couple of accidents blocking traffic, and came across another one on the way home, and I’m grateful that I wasn’t involved in any of them. Bright side of life. (Bright—get it?) I’m also thankful for small opportunities to do good in the world. I took advantage of a couple of them today, and I’m thankful for the friend who alerted me to them. Sorry if that’s a bit cryptic, but there it is.

Also, I had a new poem accepted recently, publishing very soon, and I’m still glowing with warmth from that.

How about you? What are you grateful for today?

And Wes Anderson!

And I just read that there’s a new Wes Anderson movie on the way, and I can’t wait. Even before I read the premise, I knew it would be amazing, and now I’ve read the premise (and you can too; just follow the link) and am even more excited. Just look at those visuals.

And this cast:

And here’s the movie poster!

I’m silently swooning. Not a Wes Anderson fan? Don’t even talk to me.

I saw the sun for about two minutes today. I was at work, looking out my window at the same gray sky I’d seen all day long, when someone stopped by to say there was color in the western sky. I’m desperate for sunlight and color these days, so off I went to an empty office on the west side of the building.

Sure enough, just above the horizon but partially hidden behind a tall building, was a bit of sunset. Not much, but we’ll take what we can get. I took this photo through the dirty office window, which might actually have enhanced the color. I haven’t retouched it; that doesn’t seem honest. I’m thinking about posting a picture a day until the sun comes back out for real. I’ll have to think that through, since today’s picture isn’t at all indicative of what most of the day looked like. It’s the high point.

Journal of gratitude

So I’m grateful today to have had at least a couple of minutes of sunset with color and light in the sky. I’m also thankful to have a husband cooking dinner for me at the end of my 11-hour workday, and for the two old dogs’ continued health, which like the sun is a day-by-day proposition.

Yesterday’s high point was writing. Not only did I publish two blog posts; I also wrote two poems. They are admittedly short poems, but poems nonetheless and ones that I’m pleased with.

My Oscars moment

And then there were the Oscars. I didn’t care much about the nominated films, although I did really enjoy Jojo Rabbit—one of the few I had seen. But I pretty much melted from the cuteness of Jojo’s two featured child actors on the red carpet. I looked for a video of Roman Griffin Davis, the child star of the film, running to greet someone in the crowd with a huge grin on his face. I couldn’t find that, so I’ll settle for this photo montage of him with Archie Yates:

I think we can all agree that roman griffin davis and archie yates pic.twitter.com/iSYvbOVDMa

— n.g. (@ndotgdot) February 10, 2020

After that I just don’t have the heart to criticize anyone’s outfit. I’m going back to YouTube to watch more videos of these two stealing hearts in their interviews.

Spring is coming. I know this because my front yard and at least one neighboring yard filled up this morning with a hungry flock of migratory robins and starlings. There were probably about 30 birds in all, voraciously grabbing up food of some sort from the ground. My bet is on juniper berries, given the tree they flocked under.

It’s too early for our summer robins to arrive yet, and I was surprised to find robins paired with starlings, so I went searching for info: Do robins, in fact, migrate with starlings? I learned that mixed flocks aren’t uncommon, at least among fruit-eating birds. I didn’t see starlings listed specifically as birds that migrate with robins, but they are migratory. It’s possible that our local starlings saw robins descend to the ground to dine and got attracted to a possible food source, but the fact that they all pretty much arrived and left together suggests to me they were a mixed flock.

So spring is coming. Hooray! I’m happy for the reminder because last weekend January turned to January for pretty much the first time. We got a downpour of rain followed by a driving snowstorm, and then a brilliantly clear blue day; blue sky in January is pretty much synonymous with a cold snap in Illinois, so we did a bit of shivering and made soup and put our sandwiches under the broiler for a couple of days.

It’s warmed up since then, but with the snow came a lovely visitation of snowmen all over the neighborhood. This guy was my favorite, very cheery and bright, but laced through with dead leaves because of the rain that came before the snow.

With a hint of spring in the air today (temperature only 35, but no wind, and … remember … robins!), those snowmen that have survived are much less distinct. One looked much more like a seated snow dog than a man. Today’s favorite … this little guy, nearly headless but so nicely scarved:

Reading for the season

I’m looking for a good almost-spring book. If you are, too, I have one good suggestion: The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate, by Peter Wohlleben. I read it this winter, and it’s full of miraculous information about the life of forests, which seems just perfect for spring. For now, I’m reading my garden catalogs and plotting my seed order. It’s one of my favorite January-February pastimes, and I’m contemplating a raised vegetable bed this year, so the possibilities feel endless.

Robins and starlings: Fun links

• American robin migration info
• Birds that form large flocks together
• Starling facts