Andy said he heard the cardinals yesterday as he cleared some ice from our front step. There must be a pair that has made a home in the row of Steeplechase thuja that lines the street. I’ve seen a smaller female fluttering about the side yard, in the bushes near the garage where the lilac blooms in late spring. That space is covered with a couple feet of snow, but the lilacs have risen above it, as has the climbing hydrangea, whose papery, unfurling bark is now a focal point of architectural grace and prettiness.
In this wondrous way, winter reminds of summer – the contrast so vital and vibrant, not unlike the way these faux cardinals show off the chartreuse glory of the lemon cypress shrub in which they so whimsically nestle. Welcome, winter. Let’s be friends this season – we need that more than ever.
“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.†―
