SNOW CATS

 Rona

"The very fact of snow is such an amazement. " 

                                            -Roger Ebert

Snow Cats........they're everywhere.

They appear in winter to watch the Thrush

Hide under  benches, dripping with snow.

 Cooper's Hawk  Finds them intrusive. He's hunting.

"Just silence and snow.The stars. The moon. The wind. Blankets of pure snow." -Damien Echols

Thrush hops on the frozen bird bath.

And the snow cats watch from their silent places.

Deep in snow they wade.

Trying to catch frozen snacks

"Snow is not a wolf in sheep's clothing...It is a tiger in lamb's clothing."-Matthias Zdarsky

Could also be a cat in lamb's clothing...

A cat who waits in the snow.

In the dense whiteness.

When it is time to make snow angels.

There is a cat.

Sweet Simon

In the snow. In the hedges. 

The Snow Cats  plod and pad. Quiet and silent. 

 Spencer

 "The branches of the trees had frozen solid, reaching out white fingers of glass that would shatter in any breeze, or chime like musical bells. The world looked strangely magical. " -Alex Nye

 Dingle Ball

Photographs 2021

* Rona, Dingle Ball, Spencer and Simon......neighbourhood cats who visit daily.

RUNNING TOWARDS YOU

"If ever I was running , it was towards you..." 

                                                     -Jennifer Elizabeth

It was a winter long ago, but I  still remember. Snippets in my here and there. Of Red boots. Red boots stamping up and down. Furiously.

Snow on the ground. I wanted to wear my red gum boots. Stamp. Stamp.

I was four. A furious four. I wanted to wear my red gum boots out in the snow.

I wouldn't stop screaming. Willful I was. (Still am )  So my father made me put on my coat  before  plunking me outdoors on the doorstep. My red boots and I. In the snow.

And he watched me. Through the front portal of the door. And the snow came down.

I screamed and pounded and kicked the door.

"I run away" I yelled. "Fine," he said through the portal."You do that.."

"Running, you should know, is a kind of stillness.." 

                                         -Tiphanie Yanique

Stamp. Stamp. Scream . Pound. Stop. Then Listen. I listened to the quiet. Snow fell. 

And where would  I run. Left. Right. With snow like stars in the night.

It fell and it whirled and it swished this way and that. 

And for once I stood without making a sound.

My red boots crackled in the cold.

And I wanted to run . But not away. But towards him.

The door opened. And he stood there in the warmth of the house.

And my father lifted me up. So high.  And I heard his voice:

"I'll be the mountain whose whispers trigger you to stop running ,and start becoming the lovely yet stunning avalanche you most certainly are..."

                                   -Curtis Tyron Jones

 Photographs 2021

AGAINST a WINTRY SKY

The CAT PLANT does rise. Can Spring be far off...........even though winter is still here....

There is a budding Morrow in Midnight by Christina  Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) Author of the Christmas carol "In the Bleak Midwinter" and "Love came Down at Christmastime"

Wintry boughs

Against a wintry sky.

Yet the sky is partly blue

And the clouds are partly bright

Who can tell...........

But sap is mounting high

Out of sight

Ready to burst through.

Winter is the mother-nurse of Spring

Lovely for her daughter's sake.

Not unlovely for her own.

For a future buds

In everything

Grown or blown

About to break..........

"Melancholy were the  sounds on a winter's night..." -Virgina Woolf

Photographs 2021    Discovery Passage, Mt. Washington Range, Willowpoint, Campbell River, B.C.