Winter Birch Puzzle

Winter Birch
Winter is my favourite season. In the country, after the snow comes, the landscape goes quiet. I set a 8’ x 4’ board at an angle against my kitchen window and try to capture the colours at the end of a cold winter day. Black-trunked saplings—teenaged trees—cast long blue shadows across the snow, like slender dancers stepping daintily across a white stage. The troupe is led by a papery old birch. For a few moments at sunset, the trees are gilded and silhouetted against the golden sky. At dusk in winter, sometimes, everything is young and colourful.