Winter Welcome

There's a feeling about the early morning after a snowy night akin to being the first kid downstairs on Christmas day, surveying the gifts still neatly wrapped. Mysterious business had gone on while you slept. An eerie mise en place waited as yet undisturbed.

The light, the land, the snow compose a world in platinum. None of them holds dominion. They commingle to a new and different thing: a seasonal alchemy. Proceeding down the trail I'm reluctant to look back at the trace of first footprints in the snow.

The trail opens to stillness. Snow mixes with air, earth and water to dissolve the edges of each. The landscape detaches from familiar moorings to float on its own horizon.

Past  the quarry the ocean sloshes contentedly. It's its own thermodynamic self, replenished by snow-melt, sculpting lines on the shore according to the laws of watery reunion.

The winter ocean summons another face: colorful, energetic, uncompromising. All you can do is nod and smile respectfully. Rough riders take their chances for thrills or hard-earned professions. Landlubbers admire untamed beauty.

On the fresh water side of the ledges ice reflects extra light up onto the quarry walls. The granite is never so glowing as in winter.

It's a time of year for noticing little satisfactions that might be shrouded by foliage the rest of the year, or shouted down by boisterous colors. Shadows suggest origin stories to ponder. Highlights suffuse surfaces with tints warmer than the air.

What you thought you knew must be reconsidered, stretched, expanded. Nature takes an encore in winter.

If  subtleties have lulled or escaped you, Nature may close the day with a flourish to counteract seasonal affective disorder. Not the butterscotch light of August, but a splendid sky  unique to winter design.