NOVEMBER MOON

It's cold out today, the second day of the whitetail gun deer season in Wisconsin.  This morning when I woke up and looked out my window, the ground was coated with powdered sugar.  Most of the snow has disappeared this afternoon though, except for a coating of white on the pond's new ice.

We've went from fall to winter, from dragonflies to snow flakes, in just a few short days.  It always seems like winter begins here where I live during the week of Thanksgiving. When it comes suddenly like this year, it takes us time to acclimate.

It's calm in the woods right now and I'm enjoying the peacefulness of the day's end as the sun sets beyond the gray, cold, clouds of a soon to come winter.

What lies in front of me as I sit near my brother's tree stand, hoping a deer will come my way, are fallen oak leaves, golden marsh grass, everything in shades of grays and browns.  The tamarack's golden needles and red, orange, and yellow leaves from the oaks, aspen, birch, and maples have since fallen and turned to brown.

I'm not hunting again this year, and sometimes I do miss it.  As I sit here in my blaze orange coat leaning up against a big oak tree, I hear a few distant gun shots to the east and the west, but nothing close by.   I hope everyone has had a safe and fun season so far.

It's time to walk back to the cabin now as the sun has set and darkness is closing in.  But wait, here's the moon!  As I catch a glimpse of it rising through the treetops above the pond, it brings me hope.  Staring at the moon's bright and fuzzy glow, I see a framework around it consisting of  tiny buds on the tamarack branches and catkins on the aspen trees, all sure signs that spring is around the corner... just waiting to come back again!  And boy howdy, I can't wait!