There’s usually something to surprise me first thing in the morning. Fresh snow, a visiting hawk or just a really beautiful sunrise when I throw open the curtains to greet the day.

This morning’s surprise was that Fred and the girls were out before I was, which means I accidentally left their coop open last night when I went out to collect eggs…

Oops!

They don’t go anywhere, they just sit up on the top of the pens and wait for me. Thank goodness because we’ve had chickens go right into the dog pen and get gobbled up. Our next door neighbor’s free range chickens would end up getting flattened by her horses so she gave up keeping chickens. 😄

I’m glad they kept the horses, they make my day to look out and see them first thing every morning…

I am also glad there’s a church nearby even though I’m not Mormon, because it always makes me feel warm and cozy when I see it draped in the colors of sunrise…

It humbles me and makes me feel a little more grateful and appreciative to God, so I guess it works on non-members to some degree, lol.

Oh, but speaking of sunrise surprises.. just after I snapped these pics this morning I heard a flock of trumpeter swans and got to the window just in time to see them fly past. It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen them and I wasn’t ready with the camera so I didn’t get any pictures, but I did get a really nice, up close view first thing this morning.

Then the hubs called to say he’s on his way here, and he’ll see me soon.

So that was the nicest sunrise surprise of all! 😊