I heard the strange tap dancing sound coming from outside. I went to the window gazed down on the deck below but saw nothing. Suddenly I realized the sound was coming from above me. I leaned my cheek close to the glass and looked up to see a line of feathered tails bobbing from the gutter above. I suppose the birds were lined up drinking from the stream of melting ice flowing into the gutters. It has been in the 20°s today but finally sunny after days of cold. I went for the camera but the birds were gone before I returned.

When the weather gets like this, with freezing rain and ice and dipping below 0° at night, I hunker down at home and stay put. Leaving the house only to carry in the logs for the fire and to the dog and the chickens.

The animals I see from my toasty shelter, unlike me, seem to be more active than usual. The birds frantically attack the feeders and one another for the prime feeding spots. The squirrels come looking for the peanuts that I put out on the deck last week. The raucous Blue Jays and the parade of bounding, leaping, and creeping squirrels have already consumed those leaving only the cast off shells to blow off onto the icey grass below. They do their acrobatic Olympics, trying their best to beat the designer of the squirrel-proof bird feeders I have hung outside the kitchen window.

A rabbit hops up to the fence of the chicken run. He must smell the grain within but he is locked out and moves on. I look out later as I wash dishes and see a flock of cardinals pecking at the scratch I threw out earlier for the chickens. The chickens are in their coop staying out of the wind but the Cardinals do not seem to notice it. I see a Robin and a male Buebird hopping from branch to branch of the Hackberry tree above the old playhouse gobbling up the dried berries that stubbornly still cling to the twigs. He is about a month early and I wonder what that means. An early Spring perhaps? He has come to scout out a good nest site for his mate who will come later but today he is focused on the fuel that will get him through this cold spell.

I settle back into my chair with a book I have nearly finished and feel grateful for my warm and peaceful abode.

Angus stuffs his old jackets behind the seat of his pickup truck instead of putting them in the Good Will box. He told me he often sees homeless guys on his way to and from work. He wants to have the coats handy if it looks like one of them need one. I was fascinated by this information. I don't notice that side of my husband. Anyway, he has been doing that for years now.

It was natural for him to want to hook up with the group at our church making efforts to help the homeless and he was one of the first to join up. Angus grew up in the city not far from the railroad bridge where "our" homeless folks abide. His mom still lives in that same house.

There's a QuikTrip just off the highway that we often stop for gas or coffee on our way home from Angus' mom's. I used to wonder why he always stopped there but it wasn't long before I realized he stopped looking for the homeless guys he often sees hanging around there as much as for the gas. He sometimes buys them a cup of coffee or gives them a couple of bucks and visits with them a few minutes.

I was with Angus one time when he taked to a man then went on in to pay for our gas. We had just been to the grocery store so I grabbed an apple and went over to man myself. I offered him the apple and he politely refused it and showed me his rotted teeth. "Can't eat apples any more." I think we left him with a loaf of bread that day.

Anyway, that is how our church group found this "Under the Railroad Bridge" habitat. After talking to these guys that were so often seen at this QuikTrip, they learned that they live nearby just past the highway. There is a railroad track and several have set up camp there. Originally there were just a few but as winter set in more and more have come and now there are around 12 or so now, although some come and go.

They are at the edge of the city in a wooded area. There are more services for homeless people deeper in the city but these people find it to be safer here. They say that Law Enforcement pretty much leaves them alone if they don't hassle anyone. They have built a small community.

I am thinking about them today because the weather has turned cold after a beautiful bout in the 50°s. Yesterday there was freezing rain and sleet with more to come today and snow tomorrow. I don't know how cold it got last night but it is only 19° right now. I am worried about them.

I was driving to work on only four and a half hours of sleep. I'd been off for 2 weeks for the holidays and was having trouble adjusting back to the "go to bed early & wake up early" routine. I'd been allowing myself to wake up naturally and it felt so good! But yesterday it was back to rising before the sun and dressing in the dark while my husband who works nights still slept. I'd stayed up way too late the night before and knew I would pay the price for that as the day wore on. But it was the beginning of a new year and it felt good to be looking at the future.

My 15 minute morning drive along the back roads is always a spiritual, praying, thinking and readying time for me. The low light of dawn is conducive to peaceful and rejuvenating thought. I needed that as I headed back to work (and the "real" world) .

I had just rounded a bend when I suddenly saw the full moon low in the darkened, tri-colored sky. There was a brilliant star low beside it and it shown so brightly that it looked a promise. The Morning Star. It looked like a beautiful, surreal watercolor painting. The colorful sky, the full moon, the brilliant morning star and the perfect timing & feeling of heading into a brand new year... it lifted me to a place of hope.

Okay, so I know that the star was really a planet, probably Venus, but that does not take away my joy of that very moment. I have never seen anything like that before and I will take that image with me and remember it. I will pull that painting from my brain it will remind me of the feelings I had. Brains and memories are good for that. I'll think of this new year and of hope and that God gives us a renewed strength when we need a fresh start. It always amazes me that God gives us just what we need when we need it. He knows before we ask and it is just there waiting for us to notice.

I wonder how many times I don't.