Sunday, January 8th

It was a wild and stormy night… Thunder and lightning… An inch of rain fell while we slept. This morning on the back porch it’s cool and windy. The temperature is 57°, the wind out of the north is gusting to 20 mph. The clouds in the sky are rushing to the south.

Looking at the Red oak I see one, singular, red leaf fluttering in the wind. On the ground beneath the tree, only a few dozen leaves decorate the dried grasses. Even the bald cypresses are almost completely bare of brown leaves. While the young Red oak by the shed is still holding most of its all red leaves.

There is a large oak, white I think, on my neighbor’s property. Just last week I was looking towards it and noticed it was still full of leaves. Today I see nothing but bare branches. Looking around my yard, besides the pine trees it’s only the few live oaks that are still green.

The majority of the oaks in my neighborhood are r water oaks. In a normal winter they would still be holding onto most of their leaves. But this yo-yo winter has convinced them to drop their leaves earlier in the season.

I can hear a large flock of grackles talking out in the woods. The white wing doves I’ve been visiting my yard regularly. The resident Blue Jays and Cardinals show their flash of colors in the otherwise colorless trees. And as always, the Carolina wrens, the Carolina chickadees, and the titmice visit my feeders all day long.

Today my sons Will be coming over. And between the two of them and my two oldest grandsons we will finish the changing of the seasons. And the process that begin on Thanksgiving Day will end today as we take down the Christmas lights and return all of the decorations to the attic once again.

Well it’s time for me to begin to think about breakfast. So I guess I’ll let this muse come to an end. Once again, let me say… Stay safe, stay healthy, and pray for our dysfunctional nation. And the Lord help our democracy…