Winter Fog

Wednesday morning at 1:40 am, it's 29F (-1.6C) and we have our bedroom window wide open so we can have the cold brisk air on our faces when we sleep. I think we must have the genes of ice age wanderers in us. We love the chill, find it invigorating during the day and sleep inducing at night. We like lots of blankets piled on, in a cold room. Suddenly out of nowhere, the howling cry of a coyote splits the night air like a blade cleaving the silence from the darkness. Again. A different sound, another coyote. Their voices are so close we think they must be just beyond the fence no more than 150 feet away. They howl and chatter loud and crazy, a cackle or demonic laugh. I immediately think of Bev. I leap from the bed to get the camera. I know I'm not going to get a photo in the night, but Bev has recently recorded the coyotes at her place using her camera. The howling stops. We've heard the coyotes before, although never this close and never just in a single outburst like this. I expect another round. My heart is beating. I don't want to turn the light on to find the movie record setting. Silence. Our neighbor's motion sensor light goes on. Five minutes. It goes off. Silence. The coyotes have moved on without another sound. Gone.
It is almost too much to fall back to sleep. Those cries were so close and wild, we are full of adrenaline. Doze a bit, but awaken again. The night air fills with a muffling fog, and by morning the sunrise reflects the eerie night we've had.
Soon enough, though, the fog lifts completely. It's a perfectly clear blue-sky day at our house. So we head out to the Larry Scott Memorial trail to see if we might find our friends, the amorous eagles. But when we arrive we find the trail is still covered in fog all the way to the ground. We think it is a suitably beautiful match for our foggy state. We see no eagles, and the tree where they often perch is barely visible until we are directly beneath it. Off in the bay we hear the gulls crying and crying, but we can't see them either. Nothing happens, but this.

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Don't forget to send your Good Planets photos to Susannah of Wanderin Weeta. Her email is susannah at dccnet dot com. We've added Good Planets carnival to Blog Carnival and have that very fine reminder in our sidebar. Check it out. Also check out the Flickr site to see the stunning gallery of photos that have been submitted since August. It's an ongoing celebration of our good earth. I hope you'll send something beautiful to Susannah.