First Snowfall

Out in the predawn woods with Kidu this morning, watching him gambol in the still falling snow and marveling at the silent beauty of the world. There were no footprints but those of a few deer and a lone fox, no sounds but our footfalls and a gentle breeze. Wonderful. No pictures of Kidu because he never stood still, even once. I noticed that while I had trouble staying on the trail, he did not; four inches of snow did not interfere with his sniffing out where he and I had walked a hundred times before. Nor did it keep him from finding sticks that had sunk under the drifts.

And now with the sun out, a different kind of beauty.