One thing that I love about living out in the wilderness is that you never ever know what you are going to see from one moment to the next. Often I’ll be busy completing a task and suddenly I’ll look up and see a beautiful bird, like this golden winged Northern Flicker (above) and I’ll catch my breath at the beauty of the moment. Just yesterday morning, I had another moment of wonder when I opened the back door to a small herd of deer snuffling around under the bird feeders. (I admit that after enjoying their beauty for a few minutes I let Lucy chase them. She lives for these moments and although she never catches them, she lives for the opportunity to try!) I have also been glimpsing both a red fox and a grey fox quite often this past month, usually at night and in the moonlight.

This makes me wonder how many moments do I miss each day simply because I am so engrossed in a task (and forgetting to look up once in a while) or perhaps because my mind is ‘somewhere else’ and not ‘here, now’. These fleeting glimpses of nature’s beauty are truly gifts. They take my breath away, make me smile and fill my days with magic and wonder.