I missed the stillness that only a long day of falling snow can give. Stillness so great it binds everything and everyone within it. I missed the beauty of frost coating branches and limbs, turning every tree into a chandelier of crystal ice.
I missed the winter nights--how a ground covered in snow can take a full moon's light and radiate it tenfold back to the heavens. Moonlit snow in winter weakens the boundaries of night and day. Too bright for night and too dark for day -- a moonlit walk in the heart of winter is treading into myth.
I don't think I could live in a place without winter. Not for very long, anyway. Despite my anxieties and worries about sicknesses and travel woes, winter is a part of me. And it always will be.
This small patch of winter weather was short-lived, however. The sun has come out and the temperature is rising. The frost is gone and melt water is dripping from the eaves.
It seems that spring is just around the corner. The sap is running in the trees and geese are filling the sky. Soon we will open doors and windows and welcome the sun back to our northern land.
And I too will welcome the sun back with open arms. But not before giving winter a long kiss goodbye.
6 comments:
I so love it when people recognize how wonderful winter is while they are living it! I miss it so much, you are right, the quiet, stillness and beauty are what I love, I definitely can't wait to move back and enjoy those things again! Winter here is wind, rain and mud... for months yuck!
I love your pictures. I do not like driving in the snow, but I love taking pictures of the snow sitting on the trees and watching my kids have fun in the snow. My son likes making snow plows out of old push lawn mowers, small toy trucks for his little brother. My 3 youngest got to learn to ski this year. They caught on very fast. I am your neighbor in WI.
What a beautifully written post! Eloquent.
Hubby and I have noticed a very different feel to this winter and to us, even, in the way we've felt these past snowless months. First off, it ain't right (!), plus we haven't felt the enforced slowing down that lots of snow in winter brings to the routine of a year's unfolding.
That was beautiful writing. I felt that snow hush, really felt it. And I live in San Diego!
Lovely post, Jo.
Hmmmm, our trees look just like th eone in your second picture. But that's b/c they are blooming!!!! :) Stevie@ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com
Thanks, all of you. Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you, and to the blog. Busy busy busy, blah blah blah. You know how it is! Spring is here and I never finished my winter to-do list!
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