Mornings at Sage Creek Ranch

Morning comes really quickly around Sage Creek Ranch - there's a moment where there's no sun and then the sun is fully, roundly, hotly there.

It peeks through the trees - and thank God for the trees or it'd be much hotter, much sooner.

It brushes the well house and gives the strawberries; Dew plant and Gerbera Daisy their first dusting of the light they need to keep blooming.

It lightly strikes the lichen - but just for a moment before it's too high to burn the delicate flora from the rocks to which they tenaciously cling. The lichen turns brown by August in Tioga, Texas. But this year, we've been blessed by sufficient rainfall to keep even northern Texas green.

There are places where the trees, bushes and tall grasses are so dense that only a fragment of yellow gets through at the first light of morning

On my way back from the mailbox, I can see that the sun is already moving quickly enough through the sky to light up the driveway.

I cross the road to the neighbor's stock pond. It is beautiful in the morning - still, pristine-looking and verdant.

Even the road looks quiet and still this morning. Devoid of traffic even during our "rush hour".

Driving the dogs and the golf cart home from the mailbox, each morning is a total immersion in nature. It never fails to delight me.

Each morning, I look through the trees at the neighbor's property to see if I can spot the horses and their donkey.

What are you glorying in today?