A Break in Winter

Haven't the last few days been utterly glorious?  I felt like a giddy kid let out from school today.  Warm breeze, sunshine all around me, everything and everyone seemed ready for this welcome break from winter.

I was sitting in the shade of the northwest corner of the porch this afternoon.  Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes and let my mind wander aimlessly, entertaining myself with bits and pieces of "I wonder ..."

I wonder if that little moth  flying around in front of me knows that it is going to get cold again?  I wonder if it will find a warm place to stay when the temperature drops tonight?  How crazy is that?  A moth.  Let's see....an insect who is so attracted to light that it will fly into a burning flame.  I really don't think that a moth does much in the way of reasoning.  It just wakes up, enjoys the day, and finds a place to perch at night.  In the summer it is usually inside my house making loop-de-loop turns around the ceiling fixture in the kitchen.

I wonder if those thousand upon thousand of spider web filaments that blow across my field are attached to tiny little spiders hoping  they will get enough lift to find somewhere else to climb and nest.  Those silken threads certainly aren't designed to catch anything to eat.  And what happens when the day is cold and very windy?  Where do those little spiders go then?

I wonder about those ducks that are using my pond for a rest stop but never seem to stay.  This morning we saw five take flight before we  able were to get a good look.  They are certainly wary of us.  Several years ago we made a very nice duck house for them to raise their young in, but so far not  one has taken advantage of it.  I wonder where  they stay when they aren't freeloading on my property? 

Our herd of deer is back.  During the coldest of the recent weather  they have stayed in the woods where the wind is not so harsh and there is plenty to eat.  I wonder, do they know that we look for them everyday and plot how we will thin their numbers come fall?  But, somehow they disappear when the calendar says Deer Season.  I wonder how they know that?

I wonder why I am so anxious for winter to be over?  Am I tired of gloomy, cloudy days when even the birds refuse to fly?  I stroll down to my garden. I really should go get the rake and hoe and some clippers and start cleaning it up.  I wonder why I am content to just stand on the edge where I have made a pile of rocks, to be hauled away at a later date, and say, "Tomorrow maybe."

It is just too nice a day to spend working.  I am enjoying a break in winter.  We may have a string of days like this for a while.  And I know that I need to cherish each moment and hide it away...until we get the final break in winter.