A Gray Day in Paradise.

Or is it Grey day? I say Gray, she says Grey, which is it? What do YOU think?

Well, never mind that now. The Lake is always beautiful, during all of it's seasons. The Winter Season is one of a stark beauty, sometimes just cold and gray - there's that word again - but often dazzling.

Today it is just cold, dull, dismal, dreary and very, very Gray.

But as always with The Lake there are bright spots. As so often happens, it is the birds that provide those welcome bright spots. The first birds that I saw this morning were the Crows, large black boisterous Crows. But they left almost immediately, I don't think it was because they saw me through the window - it takes a lot to get them to leave if they don't want to. No, they probably spotted a dead fish or some other delicious dead morsel. I scanned The Lake for more items of interest, and right on cue a line of six Canada Geese glided past the end of our pier in a perfect line. Talk about getting your ducks in a row! They had this down pat. The six were closely followed by a single goose, then another single and then a group of 20 - more or less in a line - followed finally by two Geese, again in a line. I wonder why they do that? Any ideas anyone? They have a reason for flying in a V formation, could the single file formation on the water be for the same reason? I think maybe it is. Don't you?

No time to ruminate for long on that Mystery of Nature, here comes my next bright spot of the day. Snow! Yes it is snowing, very lightly it is true, but just the second snowfall of the season. The last "Snowfall", on Friday December 10th consisted of approximately 14 snowflakes, it was over almost before I had a chance to report it. Although we only had the shortest flurry on record, some areas had as much as a half inch and one of those areas was of course the Ellicott City/ Woodstock area, where, wouldn't you know it, we were going for our first Christmas party of this Happy Season. But all was well, that time. I'm not so sure about this time as it is falling fast and furious, in the 5 minutes since I reported it to you the deck is almost covered. I'm glad that I have opened the chickens already. It is falling so heavily now that it is getting hard to see the other side of The Lake. I can still see our Pier clearly and two groups of Canada Geese have just met at it's end, two from one direction and six from the other. They swim up to each other face to face and stop. They seem to be waiting for something, and here it comes, another group of about 20 or so Canada Geese. They all gather together, this time seemingly in a haphazard group, although I am sure there is a reason behind their arrangement, and they set off, gliding magnificently to the East and neighbor Bill's Luscious Lawn where they doubtless plan on eating their breakfast of grass washed down today with a generous helping of snow. It takes more than a few snowflakes to change their plans.

Time for me to get my own breakfast, and a third cup of coffee!