Winter Light

Emily Dickinson may have found winter light (well, okay, winter afternoon light) oppressive, but despite my general lack of fondness for winter, winter sunshine is one of my favorite things. Both morning and evening light cast a red glow on snow, picking up the last remnants of color in dried leaves and grasses.

The most ordinary neighborhood streetscapes look almost magical, like something out of a story more interesting than any told about our very ordinary town.

And winter is what made me fall in love with little bluestem. This grass found in every field and vacant lot in the eastern US is one of the stars of a snowy landscape.

I will never understand the allure of lawns when this lovely native is ours for the asking.