December scenes

We haven't decorated inside the house yet, but this tree in the inner-courtyard is aglow every night. I've tried at daylight, in pitch dark, and at nightfall--to capture a good photo of it, but this one (at 5:00 pm) still isn't very realistic---in real life it looks beautiful.
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Here's a nice Christmas poem I came upon (oops--an unintended pun):

"Christmas Eve, Almost Midnight"
David Denny

Driving through the mist after delivering
packages, I come upon a family of deer
walking down the middle of the street.
I cut my lights and engine and coast
behind them awhile. They are cruising
the neighborhood, nibbling the frosty lawns,
looking for nasturtiums. I glide behind them
around a corner and down another street,
the only sound the crunching of newly formed ice
beneath my tires, until they disappear onto the dark,
soggy soccer fields of the middle school.
I tell you I can count on one hand
the number of times I've been happier.



Here's one of our window bird feeders after some overnight snow last Sunday.









Photo by Charlotte Anne Zalot, OSB

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