Morning and Evening in Western Oklahoma

 The sun rising over that fog bank brought me to a stop--a very quick one, however, because I was running late this morning. Here's two morning snapshots. The rest were taken this afternoon and no, I didn't take the shortest route home...just in case you wondered.

This one is my favorite. I just couldn't resist all the converging lines and the wisps of cloud and tree.

Foggy Days

On a foggy morning I walked the quiet streets...
and marveled at the absentee horizon.







                                                                         The sky was like a painted photographer's backdrop-- nothing in the distance.

Even the sun stopped glaring.
Birds lost their wings to angelically-shimmering mists.












The band was gone to contest, so I took my remaining sophomores to frolic in a few minutes of fresh air. It was almost warm, yet the snow remained in sheltered crevices, fostering a sense of the surreal.





Suddenly, a snowball came out of nowhere and smacked someone in the back. Swiftly, he stooped beside the creek and grabbed a sopping handful of the stuff so that he could avenge his daring assailant.

She laughed. Who would have guessed that quiet Mary Kate, the new girl from Alaska had such great aim with a snowball.
He threw it, but it missed and shattered itself to smithereens yards from her booted feet.

Right before the sun broke through to ruin
our mysterious-feeling morning, I made them pose beneath the trees.

We agreed to call it "Sophomores in the Mists."

They're a bunch of sweethearts.

One Winter Wonder Day

 It started snowing around six o'clock yesterday,  Sunday evening, and by ten last night we had all received the message that school would be dismissed on Monday. Hey, it's Oklahoma. We're not used to driving in the slush, ok? Besides, it was too beautiful to waste our winter cozy morning on trying to back out of the driveway and ending up in the mud.
I awoke before dawn, peeked outdoors and sighed. Such a soft carpet--four inches of pure, cold. And it was still. Quiet. I love still and quiet.

What a great day. I did mounds of stuff--graded papers to the tune of the dryer and the washer, and to the smell of stewing vegetables in the slow cooker. I did exercises on the Wii, caught up on all my "words with friends" crossword games, and even had time to run out to school and spend a few hours getting our Valentine shop set up!

 I drove by a house in the country and took a picture of two of my favorite little girls, my church children. They were taking advantage of the wet snow...building a snowman to guard their front door.

You can see by the drifts that the wind was from the north. It amazed me how tall they were on the south side of the east-west road.

Of course, by midday the temperature was in the mid forties and the fields were racing to see which one could change from white to green the fastest. That's rather odd too--white snow on green wheat fields and black cows munching away in the sun.

I enjoyed our brief kiss of winter; it was just right for a Valentine.