Beautiful Weather and Sky

     After several days of warmth, migrating geese and swans, courting wood frogs and blooming flowers, about two inches of wet snow fell on southeastern Pennsylvania on March 10.  I saw the snow start falling just before 7:00 am and it continued until right about noon.  It was my kind of snow in that it only accumulated beautifully on fields, lawns, tree limbs and gray, furry pussy willow catkins, but not on walkways and roads.  This snowfall was pretty to see with no work for me. 
     Early that afternoon, cold wind blew away many of the clouds, resulting in a blue sky, puffy, white and dramatically huge cumulus clouds, and sunshine that melted some of the snow.  The whole sky was wild-looking with those large, shifting clouds.
     But enough snow laid on the ground all day to beautify the landscape and temporarily make it look like winter's starkness in spring's warmer sunshine and longer periods of daylight each succeeding day.  That small amount of snow also enhanced the green of conifers, grass and winter rye, the gray of tree trunks and the blue of the sky.  The snow offered a unique beauty that would be fleeting.
     Just after sunset, I left home at 6:20 pm to go to a meeting.  I drove into the vivid sunset through suburban areas and farmland.  The western sky was red, the clouds were dark, offering a wild-looking contrast of foreboding colors.  Every deciduous limb and twig and every sweeping, needled bough of coniferous trees were silhouetted black and striking before the ruddy western sky.
     And as I drove along, I saw Venus shining low and alone in the sunset and the nearly-full moon in the eastern sky.  The beautiful and striking sky was also reflected in puddles in the fields and along rural roads, adding more intrigue to my journey at dusk. 
     The sunset, Venus and the moon are all the result of sunlight.  We see Venus and the moon because of sunshine bouncing off those heavenly bodies.  And the lovely sunsets and sunrises are caused by sunlight diffused by Earth's atmosphere.
     And as I drove along, I remembered that sometimes during other spring sunsets, I would see a flock of bugling Canada geese or mallard ducks flying across the sunset, creating a dramatic, beautiful picture of wildness.  And, occasionally in the past, I would see a striped skunk, a raccoon, a cottontail rabbit or some other mammal along country roads at dusk.  And this evening, I saw a skunk and a rabbit near the rural roads.  Sometimes I am first alerted to the presence of a mammal in the dark of dusk by their eyes reflecting the light of my car headlights.             
     Two hours later, on the way home, moonlight reflected enchantingly off the snow that remained in the fields.  And distant, green or yellow outdoor lights, seen across the fields, always remind me of model railroad lights that I saw in peoples' homes when I was a boy.
     That light snowfall on March 10 was heavy in beauty and intrigue without the work or danger on roads.  It was a pleasure to experience.