Outside My Window

Last evening it was pouring rain and at 9:00 p.m. the temperature outside had climbed to 9.5 Celsius. This morning we awoke to a fierce wind, a smattering of ice pellets on the ground and a frigid -3 Celsius. By the afternoon, I needed fresh air and a walk. I bundled up and headed out the front door. A metal pot of greenery had been toppled. It was bone chilling and the trees groaned and cracked in the wind. There were ice puddles on the ground, although the sun tried to pierce the cloud cover. 

When I got home, my face red, my spine chilled, a cup of hot tea and honey was a most welcome beverage. I lay on the couch in the back room and looked out the windows at the sky and the bare branches of the maple trees. Suddenly there was a graceful flash and landing of a very large bird on one of the larger limbs. It certainly was not a crow. Nor was it quite big enough to be an eagle. It sat there for the longest time, turning its head slowly, purposefully, from side to side. It was definitely a hawk – a very large one.

I hesitated to go and get my camera, because I was sure it would soon be gone. But it lingered. I retreated to the other room to find my camera and took a picture of it from the kitchen window; then I returned to the back room and took a closer picture from a window there. Finally, I heaved against the force of the wind and opened the door to the deck and took yet another much closer picture. Stunning.