February 7

The sun was brilliant this afternoon, still angled enough to stream into the sunroom, blocked only by the branches of the woods that border the access road. It is really only at this time of year that direct sun enters the room, for the spring leaf in the trees and the rising sun in the vernal sky make direct light impossible.

It is easy to forget how closed in the house becomes, when the forest reawakens with vibrancy and the spreading leaves shrink our vistas. Now, I can look down toward Asnebumskit Pond and just barely see the sunlight reflecting off of its icy surface, visible between the trunks and branches of oaks, maples and ash which lay dormant.

The world seems bigger now, and our eyes can more easily look beyond to discover what lies out there. This is a welcome exchange in winter, which on account of the cold and dark we tend to draw within and hibernate. Better yet to see through the dormant woods, to the ridgeline far in the distance, to go there and further, if only in our mind.