Cold and Gold

 

And, just how cold is it this morning?

Let the pictures do the talking. 

I snapped the frosty shots this morning while playing some ball in the hay field with Bridie. 

We received some really serious frost last night---the most dramatic and visually beautiful freeze yet for these fall months. 

I love mornings like this, especially while I'm still trying to complete fall cleanup jobs. 

It's crisp, it's clean, it's dry and it will make my leaf pickup much easier today. 

It's also a good day because another election is over. 

I spent considerable time this morning looking for results.  There seemed to be some conflicting reports, but I finally found the official story in all the races I followed. 

Twas a mixed bag in yesterday's voting, again depending on how you look at it.  

We were disappointed for our niece but somewhat relieved for her too.  

She can now go on with life, contributing as best she can without the burden of an extra unpredictable and often thankless job. 

We were happy to see that our school board candidate Scott Wood won decisively, but we have mixed emotions about the West Bonner County results.  

The good news in the Priest River area is that the public school advocates now serving on the board have a majority in deciding how their public school is going to be run.

Seems like a no brainer that public school advocates should serve in these positions. 

As usual, I think about the insanity and meanness in world around us and often go back to a strategy I followed as an educator. 

When it got really crazy and unbearable, I could always go inside my classroom, shut the door and teach the children to the best of my ability. 

These days, that strategy has some different components.  Now, as a retiree, I'm fortunate to live on a farm which offers a sanctuary much like my school classroom did back in my working days. 

There are constants on this farm that remind us that, in spite of what's going on in the outside world, the sun will shine, the seasons will change, the earth more often than not offers us healthy doses of awesome beauty, allowing us to turn off the noise of that outside world. 

What a fortunate life!

It's great therapy, as it was this morning to walk outside, see the frosty landscape and play ball with a cute little dog who could care less who won or lost yesterday. 

The simplicity of such moments helps clear the wind shield of all those things that bug us about what we see in the political landscape, albeit briefly. 

And, by golly, yesterday's landscape with all the stunning green and gold of late fall, added a nice touch to life too.

Happy Wednesday and best of luck to all who won in yesterday's election.  May you take some time away from the noise, absorb Mother Nature's messages and do your best in your elected positions. 

Happy Wednesday.