The wood is quickly burning low into red glowing coals tonight. Under a layer of weariness from the good day, I feel a tiny edge of giddiness--because it is cold here in the Northwest! Cold! Freezing outside.
As is our habit, Merry and I watched CNN student news yesterday and learned all about the Polar Vortex that's giving us these cold temperatures. (I love to say, POLAR VORTEX!) Martin and I went for a walk with Charley this morning and gloried in the biting wind, clear skies, and the yellow leaves that drifted through the air.
After years in places like Illinois, Iowa, and Pennsylvania, it felt glorious to come here by the Puget Sound, where temperatures generally waver just at or above freezing, even in January. I don't even mind the fabled rain. I am terribly grateful that the seasons still changd in a marked way, and I am even more grateful that they take their time, meandering through transitory seasons like spring and autumn. In Pennsylvania, autumn stepped up in its wildly colored sweaters to shake your hand--a brisk handshake--and then away it went, a guest that you wished would stay longer before winter elbowed her way in. Winter loved to stay around for a long time in Pennsylvania. We got to know her very well and we applauded her exit with the arrival of the first robins.
Here, the weather is generally gentler, with rains that fall for days, but not usually too hard, and winds that blow but usually just for a day or two, and snow that rarely falls and melts within a day. And I love it. But sometimes, my soul gets restless for some drama (besides the threat of a major earthquake due in the next 10-100 years), and I crave a truly freezing day with ice and snow, or a thunderstorm with lightning and thunder, or like tonight, for it to be cold enough outside to bring out the nesting instinct. Tea, blankets, and some monosyllabic conversation that makes us feel alive: "Cold tonight."
"Sure is."
"Brrrr!"
"Gotta go get more wood."
I love it.
As is our habit, Merry and I watched CNN student news yesterday and learned all about the Polar Vortex that's giving us these cold temperatures. (I love to say, POLAR VORTEX!) Martin and I went for a walk with Charley this morning and gloried in the biting wind, clear skies, and the yellow leaves that drifted through the air.
After years in places like Illinois, Iowa, and Pennsylvania, it felt glorious to come here by the Puget Sound, where temperatures generally waver just at or above freezing, even in January. I don't even mind the fabled rain. I am terribly grateful that the seasons still changd in a marked way, and I am even more grateful that they take their time, meandering through transitory seasons like spring and autumn. In Pennsylvania, autumn stepped up in its wildly colored sweaters to shake your hand--a brisk handshake--and then away it went, a guest that you wished would stay longer before winter elbowed her way in. Winter loved to stay around for a long time in Pennsylvania. We got to know her very well and we applauded her exit with the arrival of the first robins.
Here, the weather is generally gentler, with rains that fall for days, but not usually too hard, and winds that blow but usually just for a day or two, and snow that rarely falls and melts within a day. And I love it. But sometimes, my soul gets restless for some drama (besides the threat of a major earthquake due in the next 10-100 years), and I crave a truly freezing day with ice and snow, or a thunderstorm with lightning and thunder, or like tonight, for it to be cold enough outside to bring out the nesting instinct. Tea, blankets, and some monosyllabic conversation that makes us feel alive: "Cold tonight."
"Sure is."
"Brrrr!"
"Gotta go get more wood."
I love it.
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