Suburban Beauty

I went bike-riding today, and on my way home I stopped by the little man-made Bethany Lake (which is more like an oversized pond) a mile or so from our house. In summer, the water can be a bit stagnant, but after all our recent rain, the water level was of course much higher, and it looked much more like a real lake. I stood on the shore for a few minutes, quite alone, and just watched the ducks. They expected food and so congregated near me, and I saw their trails in the water spreading behind them in extended Vs, and was able to observe their habits and coloration much closer than I usually take the time to get. Watching a drake paddle around and then scratch his green head with a webbed foot was amusing--and not something that I see every day.

I like quiet moments like these, when even an artificial suburban lake has its own kind of beauty.

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For those interested, my presents were as follows:

• A CD of four Beethoven piano sonatas performed by Artur Rubinstein
• Terminator 2
• A wine red turtleneck
• A forest green sweater vest
• Piccadilly Jim, by P.G. Wodehouse
• The Last Battle, by Cornelius Ryan (unlike Lewis' final Narnian novel, this chronicles the Battle of Berlin)
• Colossus Reborn: The Red Army 1941-1943, by David M. Glantz
• The Dangerous Book for Boys, by Gonn and Hal Iggulden (a delightful book that I'm looking forward to having my sons read some day as much as reading myself)
• War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation (HUGE book!!)
• A pair of earmuffs, which has already proven useful--it was 28 degrees tonight.

And that is the lot. I hope everyone had a merry time celebrating the birth of Christ!