Morning Thanks

Garrison Keillor once said we'd all be better off if we all started the day by giving thanks for just one thing. I'll try.

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Yesterday's kingdom of alabaster


This is the Schaap outback, shot through the back window yesterday morning. Such hefty hoarfrost makes the world seem perfectly virginal. It's always a blessing, but may be even more a gift when it drops by for a couple of hours so close to Christmas. Sunlight and wind takes down all that feathery frosting, but for an hour or so you can't help thinking you're a part of the original winter wonderland. The whole world wears white gloves.

Yesterday the temps stayed cold enough to keep the powder up 'till noon, even though the sun shone radiantly. By eight, what was right outside our door was so lovely that all I had to do to get at least some of that beauty into a camera was pull on a pair of shoes and a jacket and stand on the deck.


So here we go, gloriously, east to west, a panorama, just out our back door.









Research from the University of East Anglia (GB) makes clear that "exposure to greenspace reduces the risk of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, preterm birth, stress, and high blood pressure," according to reports in Science Daily. You may want to run through that quote again--it's good for what ails you, even though there's no mention of hoarfrost.

In other words, what's out there, maybe especially on a morning like yesterday's, is just plain good for you, body and soul. In the late morning, we drove north a couple of hours like sightseers in the kingdom of alabaster, but we never really had to leave our back door.

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