This is the start of a new series. One of the things you have consistently told me you like is my posts on unexpected beauty. So here is a bit of unexpected beauty I have seen the last few weeks.
Winter. It’s cold. The landscape is filled with faded browns and grays. As I’ve written before, in the winter I love being able to see the structure of trees, bare branches silhouetted against the sky. Evergreen trees and plants provide a much-welcome scattering of green.
Still, after a while, I start longing for more colors and obvious signs of life. I look forward to spring’s awakening and, with it, the beauty of one of my favorite seasons.
Of course, there’s life all around me even in winter. The birds and woodland creatures are hard at work, keeping themselves warm and fed. Most of them blend into the landscape, which is good since at least two hawks, an owl, and coyotes live in this neighborhood too.
But there’s one creature that doesn’t blend in—the male cardinal. And for the past few weeks, these birds have been busy. Whenever I glance out the window overlooking our back yard, I often see a dot of brilliant red standing out against a drab gray and brown backdrop. They are often flitting from branch to ground then a different branch, zipping all over the yard.
I don’t have a DSLR camera with a good lens, and my trusty iPhone camera doesn’t do these birds justice from so far away. Plus they don’t stay still for very long. So the photo above is by Rose Elena on Unsplash. It looks as if she was standing on my deck when she took it.
On these gray days of January and February, I am grateful for the unexpected beauty of red cardinals.
Where have you seen or experienced unexpected beauty lately?
