When I see this photograph taken from our kitchen window, I think of Marya in San Luis Obispo and how, since she can barely imagine the chill in our air, she will now wonder if the snow really is blue.

Everett has taken to throwing a handful of sunflower seeds onto the ground beneath the bird feeder, and this small flock of redpolls partakes of it. The picture was taken while the west side of the house was in shadow, I guess — thus the appearance of blue snow.

Or -- is it really blue, and my mind interprets it as dark grey because that is the colour I think of as shadow?

I didn't fiddle with camera settings, which normally seem accurate enough as far as colour goes. So maybe it really is blue and I will have to develop a painter's eye to see it.