winter

Four below this morning. Mist rising on the Otter Creek. Ice returning to Wood's Pond. Snowmobile trailers on the roads. It's winter again.

There's a point where you can give up on winter--when temptation can enter our soul, prying its way in like cold air through the cracks in your cabin...and this can make you realize that February's coming, and beyond February, March. For all practical purposes, save for a few blizzards, March will be it. April will come rushing on and winter will be over.
See, I don't yet realize that March will be the hardest month. Early February's the coldest, and often the snowiest, but March, strange silent March, will be the hardest.

Winter
Rick Bass
Yaak, Montana