What's outside of your picture window today?

Just a cloudy rainy day, most of our meager snow is gone except in the woods. Have seen no wildlife today (9 am). Mostly see lots of deer, an occasional pheasant, weasel once, red fox, lots of crows ( fig hates those!), not as many birds as I expected. We are on 6 acres of mostly grass, conifers and hardwoods. Would have like to put in more trees but last year we had a pond dug, which is filling up so I expect to see more wildlife. Very quiet here in a country road. Previously lived in the city, always had a garden, married at age 45, moved to suburbs for about 28 years ( hated that - I’m a country girl at heart).

In the winters as I open my bedroom window a few inches and cold fresh air rushes in as I inhale it deep, all against an overcast sky, it always reminds me of the lurking mystery that the world gets enveloped in. It's an Expectation that I always see: somber but not sad...like the dusk time.

Perhaps the reason I was surprised to find SAD as a mental state,,,even tho I grew up in cold climate.

Technically not "outside my window" unless you count the car window...just a 90 mile drive to the Gulf Coast yesterday.
We had our Canadian friends along for our beach drive, a brand new experience for them - an undeveloped portion of South Padre actually has a designated road in the sand - only cars, bikes and light trucks allowed - no 4 wheelers or motorbikes tearing up the dunes.
Yesterday was warm and foggy (all day) which is unusual so the beach was deserted except for us and a handful of avid fishermen - many with Minnesota license plates! The pelicans and herons took advantage of the deserted beach to relax along the shores and in the dunes - these are unaltered photos. I can't wait to play with them!
Sue

@sueinmn and all... Wow! Did you ever take fantastic photos! These are such wonderful birds. I adore them so much... I think I mentioned a couple years ago I had a huge blue heron fly over our home when I was living in a home on a creek feeding into the St. Johns River and we had a pool and pool house in the back yard. The bright, sunny day suddenly got dark inside the house. I thought a large plane went overhead, but it lasted too long and was different. It was a blue heron with a wingspan of enormous width to cover the entire house as it did. It landed on the roof or the pool house, sat there for the longest time saying hello to me as I watched, camera upstairs, a didn't breathe forever afraid it would leave. I whispered accolades and lots of 'oohs' and 'aahs'. What a wonderful memory for me now.

Thank you, Sue, for sharing these magnificent creatures. Stunning.
Blessings, Elizabeth

Thanks, Elizabeth. This sentinel was a tri-colored heron. We believe he was guarding a nest in the dunes behind him. We drove up the beach, had a picnic lunch, went shelling, stopped to take many photos, and he was still standing guard in the same spot more than four hours later.

The pelicans are called brown pelicans, although they look gray, white and yellow to me!
Now my husband tells me I need to learn to crop and enhance my photos...
Sue

@sueinmn, and all... Sue, I think it'd be fun to learn to crop and enhance your wonderful photos, but for me they're perfection in action!

Interestingly, I thought they were a different kind of Pelican than we have in Florida, the brown pelican. All the brown pelicans I've seen here, I'm not an expert at all, are actually brown. I wouldn't have thought yours are brown... They are beautiful. My fiancé loved pelicans and had an Audobon print, huge...My son loves it and has it in his living room! Personally, I love the blue heron, or your magnificent tricolor. He's lovely and does appear to be on guard. Good Daddy Heron!

You know how to enjoy this crazy life we have. I've learned a bunch from you about a part of the US I've never visited to my dismay. Is your breathing improved in the desert? Or have they imported so many plants and trees they added the pollen we experience in our home states? And did you find some good shells? I loved shelling and walking on the beach especially early morning. Sounds like a great day with good friends...

Enjoy and be blessed...Elizabeth.

Hello Elizabeth - I actually live in semi-desert - a huge agricultural zone, and have been here so long I react to the tree pollen like a native. Grasses and other plants are much less problematic though, and a day in the salt air on the beach is heaven.
My friend was shelling for her art projects, but I already own a lifetime's worth and avoid collecting more - I just help her. One thing we do on the beach is cleanup - especially all the plastics that are so devastating to sea turtles and other marine life. We pick up huge trash bags from the ranger, fill them and return to a dumpster as we leave. Once in a while we bring a pickup down there, and fill the bed with stuff too big for our bags. And the local beach bums turn the large flotsam (think old buoys and ballast tanks) that float ashore in the storms in to art displays above the high tide line.
The pelicans are Eastern Brown Pelicans - and a little cropping and color balancing did make them better. I couldn't improve Papa Heron though.
Sue

Early blooms this year make a lovely appearance in my back yard. Central Kentucky.

Beautiful!

Just peeked out my window at the right time and saw this little guy up in the trees outside. I hear them quit often but they blend in the scenery quite well.