Quiet Season

In tourism towns, the seasons when everyone leaves and only the locals deal with the mud and cold, are called quiet seasons.  

It's the  quiet season in eastern Washington.  There is no steelhead season on the Wenatchee, no snow at Mission Ridge, much less any for cross country skiing in and around Leavenworth.  It's nippy, but not too cold.  However, there were a lot of bow hunters out, a few received my scorn trying to drive up my road...but it is the quiet season.

And we absorbed it this weekend.  Taking walks, a pace significantly faster than with Murphy, but looking for her.  Catching glimpses out of the corners of our eyes.  Our favorite places just seemed empty...I am a journal keeper, every morning I write in a journal, and I noticed tonight when I put my current journal in "it's" drawer that I have written every day for the past few days that I feel an emptiness around me.  But still, there is a difference between empty and quiet...

It's quiet and empty.

Murphy's day.