winter

 The middle of winter. Sometimes there is a thaw at this time, but not this year. We had a number of days in a row with 1-2 inches of snow. It was wonderful.

It felt like I was living in a cloud, in a world of whiteness. Even walking on a snow covered road felt like walking on a cloud. As one of the blog readers said the other day, the snow muffles sound. There were quite a few days when cars got very close when approaching from behind before I heard them, again projecting this feeling of softness/cloudness. The characteristic of the snow would change during the course of the day, falling softly like feathers, then buzzing around in the sky like white-colored gnats.

The last couple of days have been sunny and cold, 6 below zero in the morning. 

Scraping sound of a snow shovel on a driveway. Clatter of icicles falling on the bricks outside the front door as they are unmoored from the eaves by the afternoon sun. There has been a lot of snowmobile activity. Cars with snowmobile trailers on country roads, tracks in the snow.

I know this will all get very old by the end of February, but for right now, things are the way they're supposed to be in January. Happy to be a part of it.