Just for a moment during this first dawn of the year all modernity sleeps and nature reclaims a temporary yet glorious ascendency.
The only sounds are the groaning sheets of ice and the thin piping calls of winter birds, their lives in the balance on this frozen morning.
All around this place the rank feral smell of fox lingers on rime encrusted leaf, an ancient and primal message redolent on the breeze.
Overhead the V formation beloved of fowl cuts the air and geese honk their greeting to the new day.
This is a peaceful and joyous way to welcome the passage into another year.
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Photo courtesy of the author.