A birthday gift

I decided that I wanted to do something special to celebrate my birthday, something I would remember. It turned out that this was a walk along the Olentangy River bike trail where I rode to work on those hot summer days this past year. It is a different place in the winter, especially because there was almost no one on the 4 miles of the path I walked. It was a beautiful day.
The sky was clear blue and the sun shone bright white on the snowy path and on many places in the river where it had frozen. There are 2 bridges over the river along the trail where the water runs over mini dams and stays, as a result, unfrozen. There, milling about in the water and on little spits of islands, were my goose friends- dozens of them. It is incredible to me that these- and other water fowl- can swim about so complacently when the temperature is so cold. But there they were, just minding their own goosy business, passing the time. It was a gift to see them and I stopped to photograph this handsome fellow before I put my gloves back on and trudged further down the trail, smiling at the memory.