As I head into the home stretch of 2009 I find that I am grateful for the quiet fragile things that still manage to hang on despite the weather and still-recovering ecosystem. Watching this Great Blue Heron gracefully unfold its 5 feet of wingspan and slowly lift its gray-blue body above the frozen stream and white snow I felt an unexpected priviledge, and a welcomed compensation after I had missed an earlier cobalt blue sky in a morning that seem to have much promise but clouded over within a few minutes in the typical Pittsburgh gray afternoon. There it was, and there it soon went. Much like the year. Goodbye, you beautiful creature. Hope to see you again ... soon.