This time of the year I become impatient with the long Alberta winters, and homesick for Colorado, which has “reasonable” seasons. But I do enjoy the unique images winter gives us, with the blinding white snow contrasting with the blue sky. It’s nice to have a quiet outing, just me and my camera. 
I took all these pictures within about a ten-minute walk from home. (I had to keep changing the batteries and warming them up in my hands!)
Here is a poem I found in Poems for a Good and Happy Life, a book by Myrna Reid Grant, that I keep by my bed. It puts a warm feeling in me during the cold months.
December stillness, teach me through your trees
That loom along the west, one with the land,
The veiled evangel of your mysteries.
While nightfall, sad and spacious, on the down*
Deepens, and dust imbues me where I stand,
With grave diminishings of green and brown,
Speak, roofless nature, your instinctive words;
And let me learn your secret from the sky,
Following a flock of steadfast, journeying birds
In lone remote migration beating by.
December stillness, crossed by twilight roads,
Teach me to travel far and bear my loads.
“December Stillness” by Siegfried Sassoon
* “down” is an expanse of rolling, grassy upland used for grazing
And here is how it’s done by the pros, specifically Patrick Latter Photography, who I ran into on WordPress. I’ve followed his blog for months, but this is still my favorite picture of his.
Those stars! Breathtaking.
A photographer’s talent, determination and generosity, and the free gifts from the hand of a loving Creator: land, water, sky and stars.
Happily Writing 