How fitting to have our first snow of the season fall on the Winter Solstice. Well, that answered the question as to whether we would see snow this season or not.

The Winter Solstice used to be a full day affair. I’d look forward to waking up on the shortest day of the year and knowing when I woke up the next day, that it would be longer, if only by a hair.

But what is the Winter Solstice? For us in the northern hemisphere, it is when the North Pole has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. So it is not an all day affair. This year it happened at 8:20 and 26 seconds Pacific Time the morning of December 21. But the earth is racing around the sun at 29.78 kilometers a second, 18.5 miles a second, (107,208 kilometers and hour; 66,616 miles per hour). At that speed, the winter solstice happens so quickly, you don’t even get a single breath to enjoy it. By the time you clap and celebrate it, it is old news, and the earth has flown far past that point in space where the North Pole had its maximum tilt away from the Sun.

It is hard to comprehend the speed at which we are spinning through the universe. You can close your eyes and sit as quietly as possible, but nothing stops you from traveling a great distance in a short time. at 18.5+ miles a second, you’re traveling 1,110 miles a minute, 66,616 miles an hour, 1,598,784 miles a day. And we can never get back to that spot we were just a few moments ago. By the time we make a circle around the sun, the whole solar system has traveled over 7 billion miles. If we could sense even a fraction of these phenomenal speeds it’d be more thrilling than any roller coaster ride.

How many enjoy views like this when they go get their mail? When we moved here fifteen years ago, we got a PO Box at the little Bow Post Office instead of having mail delivered to a mailbox on the road. Every time I make the trip to the post office, I’m glad we did that. There is always something that takes my breath away.

This little “beach” on the pond is one of the favorite places for the ducks to hang out when they aren’t in the water. Someday there may be a duck-human translator so I can get in on all their interesting gossip.

While picking up new license tabs, I wasn’t expecting to see a swarm of goldfinches, but a feeder hanging outside the license office was a flutter with goldfinches. They don’t have their spring and summer color, though you can see bits of yellow in their wings.

There is a joy living in a special place. The swans have no idea how much joy and happiness they bring to the humans that pass their way. At least they do to me. If they did, they’d waddle closer, flap their wings, honk, dance, and put on a show.

Watching vegetables sprout is always soothing. I need soothing. Things are not always idyllic around here. Sunday night the dogs caught and killed a raccoon. Quiet, gentle Takuma and Enna turn into ferocious, wild beasts when they are on the hunt. They can be as ferocious as hyenas. I feel sorry for the raccoon, but were it not for the dogs, I’d be feeling very sorry for the ducks and chickens the raccoon may have made off with.

Enna escaped unscathed. Takuma has battle scars on his head and neck. They have mostly healed, but I’m sure I’ll feel them for a long time each time I pet him.

It’s only the second time in fifteen years here that we’ve encountered a raccoon. The other time was long ago, when we had BB & Echo. They woke me up early one summer morning, barking at the chicken coop. I ran out and a raccoon went flying across the roof of the chicken coop, the dogs chasing after it. They chased it up a tree and kept it there all morning and into the afternoon, when we brought the dogs in. The raccoon ran off and never came back.

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Every few days I get to see blizzards of white snow geese fly up off the fields. The guess when I make an errand is, in which fields are the snow geese today? And where are the swans?

One thing I will miss when life returns to normal are skies which stay blue all day. Days go by without sight of a single contrail. But lately, the number of jets flying overhead has increased.

When a jet first passes overhead, it leaves a thin, white trail. But steadily, that trail spreads far and wide. Have a jet fly by every few minutes and by mid afternoon a blue sky can change to misty white. There have been many a glorious summer day turned to a pale, cloudy day, just from the jets ferrying people from Asia and back, to Europe and back, barely aware of the Skagit Valley below.

We’re on the crossroads of jets journeying from the West Coast to Europe, from many points in the country to Asia. Once things return to normal, I’ll miss blue skies which stayed blue all day.

You can’t ask for a better morning this time of year. Barely cold, no rain coming down, and promises of sunshine on the morning clouds.

The ducks on the pond are happy this morning. The four young ones we moved to the pond have blended with Snow and the other two older ones. The more the merry, that seems to be duck philosophy. I guess if you are a duck, the more ducks you are with, the less chance you will be the one eaten.

The cherry tree the blooms year round doesn’t disappoint this time of year. Blossoms and fall leaves on the same tree. That makes for quite a show.

The Chuckanut Mountains and the other Cascade foothills are soothing today under a blue, November sky. If this was Japan, there would be small shrines on the top of many of the peaks. For mountains that comfort so many, on a summer day, the trails up the mountains are packed with hikers, shrines at the tops would be fitting.