A reminiscence from last fall might be in order since not much has happened since the snow began in November. The Burning Bush was as red as it would ever get as I was working at John and Carol’s. I heard what I thought were some ravens playing next door, or somewhere close anyway. If you haven’t noticed ravens sound like small children talking and giggling when they get together. That is what I thought the sound was until I realized that it was circling around the hill. Where it had been coming from the west it was now farther north. Ravens don’t “talk” as the fly so this was something new.
I finally located the sound as it got farther east, and as I looked up I say a large flock of white birds, rather than the black I had been looking for. Snow geese! But not even a black wingtip. It was a flock of about 15-16 swans circling before they headed south down the Bitterroot. Unfortunately, by the time I got back to the pickup and my camera they had become such tiny dots that they didn’t photograph well at all. Rather a disappointment since it was the first time I had EVER seen a flock of flying swans. Look very, very closely at the blue picture and you can see them just below the center on the right hand side of the picture. Use you imagination and you can see them anywhere in the picture, but I swear they’re there.
As fall progressed it became black earlier and earlier, but a couple of weeks ago I could finally tell that it is now becoming lighter. At 6:00 p.m. it is almost still light. As opposed to the black picture taken about 5:00 at Christmas. Only an early afternoon picture can show the texture of the white that has been on the ground since early in November. 
The prediction for next week is warmer so perhaps I can finally get out and do the early spring pruning.