Whites of January—tinged with blue.

I draw back the curtains to the cawing of crows, the papery bark of birches, the tracks of deer under the crabapple tree below our window.

© Sue Schlabach

The quilt looks like the landscape in the meadow, puckered and pocked after last night’s rains.

© Sue Schlabach

Those hens that weren’t laying back in December are filling the egg basket to overflowing. And—yes—the first eggs showed up on Christmas Eve, a nice anniversary to last year. Thanks hens.

The days are lengthening. I love that about January—the shift after the dark afternoons of December seems so quick and so promising.

More white in the forecast for Thursday.