A Taste of Winter

Flannel shirt, jeans, wool socks and a warm cozy fire.  Our first winter like day.  Eggs just gathered, frying on the wood stove, hot cocoa with marshmallows in steaming cups on the table.  Toasted slices of cranberry pistachio bread, sit on the plates.  Its a perfect morning.  Wind blowing outside, tossing leaves from their branches and flying through the air like wondrous confetti.  Acorns, walnuts, pecans and pine cones falling on the tin roof of the barn, causing me to jump each time a new one falls. This is my second most favorite time of the year.  Winter holding first place.  This is the time of preparations, of settling in for the cold weather ahead.  Soon enough, the brief but welcome by me, snow will fly for a day or two here in Texas and I will sit and enjoy the blanket of purity that will cover the land and create that winter silence that delights my soul.