Some winter mornings are bleak, but still beautiful. In the morning, in the light snow, under the cold and cloudless sky, Maria walks back from closing the back pasture gate, where we let the animals roam in the daytime. In the morning, we see all kinds of tracks – deer, coyotes, rabbits, raccoons. So much life everywhere around us.

Sometimes, I love the bleak, it makes color all the more meaningful. Every day here is beautiful, just in different ways.