Wallace Stevens referenced the overcast, snow laden clouds of a midwest winter in Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: “It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. . .”  His words aptly describe Ohio in its coldest months.

Every so often, though, there’s a welcome interlude from the usual gray palette. Despite, or maybe because of, the bitter cold, on this day the sky was a marvelous, intense blue. Had I not been standing around waiting for a couple of indecisive hounds to finish their business I would have missed the subtle aerial show. Had the sun not been at its late afternoon angle, the high altitude fliers would have passed by unnoticed, rather than sparkling overhead. The ‘daylight stars’ were visible for over an hour, continually heading north. Considering their size, flight patterns and altitude, it’s likely they were snow geese. With the snow birds heading north can spring be far behind?