Free

Icy wind picks up
Pulls leaf free from snowbound hold
Underfoot no more

Today’s wind was favorable for the leaf that was snowbound last night. The leaf was blown free of its icy hold, left lying peacefully off to the side of the trail no longer underfoot. Below is The Who’s “I’m Free” live in 1977 to celebrate the leaf’s luck of the draw.

Daddy owl eyeing me through a tangle of twigs.

This American Coot was foraging on the sandbar. Then it started to take flight and decided against it.

pTerodactyl trying to hide behind a tumbleweed.

Venus at dawn under clear skies.

After having cloud cover for most of the day, these were the last few clouds hanging around at sunset.

Kitty Print

A kitty print. Which kitty remains a mystery.

Purple ice mimicking the pTerodactyl on the clearwater ditch.

pTerodactyl flying over the clearwater ditch

Sandias and cranes at dusk.

Purple Tangle Heart with crescent moon

Dusk

Dusk and crescent moon

Persistence of dusk with crescent moon

Crescent moon

Cold Color

9ºF (-12.8ºC) at Dawn

Tommy Towhee puffed at 17ºF (-8.3ºC)

Crow and Clouds

Sunset at 17ºF (-8.3ºC) looking north on the levee

A bit of cold color through the trees looking west

Sliver moon at dusk

Snow

Laurie in the snow

We had our first snowstorm of the year. We have about four inches of snow so far and it’s down to 20ºF (-6.7ºC) as I write. It’s supposed to get into the single digits by morning.

Catnipping

Laurie picked catnip for the kitties while she was out for one of her hourly step goals. Gwendolyn was like a kitty demon eating her sprig of catnip.

Last Day Of Retrograde

Today is the last day of Venus in retrograde. If you’ve been having issues with relationships, beauty, love, money, and values over the past six weeks, things should start to change. The moon and Venus rose close to the same time this morning, and the owls were in Susan’s tree having a bit of hanky panky at the first light of dawn. I noticed overly excited, simultaneous hooting, saw a lot of flapping of wings in my peripheral vision on Susan’s tree, looked over, and got a photo of the last wing flap before the male flew off, leaving the female to watch the dawn.