Tiny Bird Party at the Sunrise Tree

I love to watch a good sunrise, especially one with neat and interesting clouds. A somewhat cloudy sunrise actually gives a better color display than a clear sky any day. And bonus points if the sunrise scene includes one or more trees and/or tree shadows.

This is a favorite tree that you have seen before on these pages. I call it the sunrise tree, for almost every morning when I drive past it on my way to work, I can see the sunrise happening in the eastern sky directly behind this tree. (Two prior shots: Sunrise Tree, and One Wild and Precious Life.)

On this particular morning, rain was expected. And temperatures were hovering around freezing, so there was a weather warning stating that the initial precipitation might arrive as freezing rain. So I was being as expeditious as possible. I had left home a little early, hoping to travel ahead of the weather.

Now, freezing rain and black ice are, in my opinion, two of the sneakiest of winter's weather surprises. There you are trucking happily along, and suddenly, you are sliding! Yes, freezing rain can be a real weather bummer. But fortunately, if there was any, it happened after I arrived at work, so it did not have any actual impact on my day, other than to light a fire under me in the morning to GET MOVING, and get moving NOW!

But there is always time to spend five minutes with the sunrise. And so that's what I did. I pulled over into a church parking lot, grabbed my camera, and ran up the hill to the point where this was my view. And I took a bunch of shots.

There was just one patch of gold in the sky, and I had found it. And so had the birds. As I watched, a number of tiny birds flew around the tree and landed on it. You can see two of these tiny birds having a tiny bird party at the tippy top of the sunrise tree. Oh yeah, and we're all invited! :-)

The song to accompany this scene is one of my favorite rock party songs: Joe Walsh's Life's Been Good. I liked it the moment I first heard it on the radio when it was released in 1978. I had the immense good fortune to see the Eagles live a few years ago, and they put on a fine, fine performance. They sounded better than ever, if that is even possible.

But the revelation of the night was Joe Walsh. He howled, he gyrated, he rocked the guitar, he partied, he pranced, he preened; he was like some insane medicine man rock god. And he introduced this  song with a wink and a smile and these words, "They tell me that I WROTE this song."

So here is Life's Been Good, performed by a very young Joe Walsh in 1978.

P.S. Bonus rock trivia: Do you know who was in love with Joe Walsh during his heavy partying days? Stevie Nicks. Yes, Stevie Nicks. She has called him "the great, great love of my life." And she has even written at least one song for him, Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You. (More on that in a prior posting.) Thank goodness that they both got clean and sober, and are still with us. Rock on, Stevie. Rock on, Joe!

Oh, yeah, and . . . party on, tiny birds!  :-)