A Gleam of Sunshine

It’s early Sunday morning as I write this and the sky is heavy with gray clouds. The forecast is for more snow tonight and our area could get another dumping because they’re calling for up to 14-inches. I keep thinking how much my husband would have loved this winter. He would be waxing up his cross country skis . . .

Yesterday was cold but mostly sunny. I had some errands to run but I managed to take a few images to share with you today.

 

The geese are flying back north.

 

 

I can hear their wings as they fly closer. It’s a comforting sound.

 

 

A peek at the house.

 

 

I love these two cedars. They are planted in the perfect spot to get the most of the setting sun and are thriving in this location.

 

 

George loves when I am home on the weekends.

 

 

He brings me tree branches.

 

 

She brings me dead birds.

 

Miss Blackie has spent the entire winter inside. I had tried to coax her onto the porch with us on nice days but she has refused each time. Granted, it’s been a cold and harsh winter but I don’t remember her ever staying inside for so long. Perhaps she is showing her age. She has just lately begun going outside for small bits of time and today she killed a small bird and proceeded to play with it in front of me. I can’t fault her for what comes naturally but I didn’t really want to see that today. Or any day.

Maybe a collar with a bell on it?

 

 

A Gleam of Sunshine

This is the place. Stand still, my steed,
Let me review the scene,
And summon from the shadowy Past
The forms that once have been.

The Past and Present here unite
Beneath Time's flowing tide,
Like footprints hidden by a brook,
But seen on either side.

Here runs the highway to the town;
There the green lane descends,
Through which I walked to church with thee,
O gentlest of my friends!

The shadow of the linden-trees
Lay moving on the grass;
Between them and the moving boughs,
A shadow, thou didst pass.

Thy dress was like the lilies,
And thy heart as pure as they:
One of God's holy messengers
Did walk with me that day.

I saw the branches of the trees
Bend down thy touch to meet,
The clover-blossoms in the grass
Rise up to kiss thy feet,

"Sleep, sleep to-day, tormenting cares,
Of earth and folly born!"
Solemnly sang the village choir
On that sweet Sabbath morn.

Through the closed blinds the golden sun
Poured in a dusty beam,
Like the celestial ladder seen
By Jacob in his dream.

And ever and anon, the wind,
Sweet-scented with the hay,
Turned o'er the hymn-book's fluttering leaves
That on the window lay.

Long was the good man's sermon,
Yet it seemed not so to me;
For he spake of Ruth the beautiful,
And still I thought of thee.

Long was the prayer he uttered,
Yet it seemed not so to me;
For in my heart I prayed with him,
And still I thought of thee.

But now, alas! the place seems changed;
Thou art no longer here:
Part of the sunshine of the scene
With thee did disappear.

Though thoughts, deep-rooted in my heart,
Like pine-trees dark and high,
Subdue the light of noon, and breathe
A low and ceaseless sigh;

This memory brightens o'er the past,
As when the sun, concealed
Behind some cloud that near us hangs
Shines on a distant field.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow