Thursday, January 30, 2014

For the Love of Winter

Almost daily now I am getting phone calls and messages from my daughter about her distaste for winter. She thinks it is because she lived in South Texas a little too long--a place where a forecast of temperatures dipping below thirty-two degrees clears the grocery store shelves of bread and milk, and keeps all the schoolchildren inside during recess lest they succumb to hypothermia. When I was her age, I did not love winter as I do now. At that time I was living in a place where winters were perpetually cloudy and dark and that, along with the short days, caused significant depression for me. 

But now I live here in Spring Creek, where we have a good balance of grey, cloudy winter days and sunny, bright winter days. I cannot say winter is my favorite season, because autumn and spring are my favorites also. In one of these conversations with my daughter, I finally had to admit that I loathe summer. I have often said that when I am wealthy (not sure how or when this will occur), I will spend summers somewhere besides Texas. I could be persuaded to spend my summers high in the Davis Mountains, but that would be the only way I would stay in Texas. 

Just as I hit the return key to begin this paragraph, the sun came out from behind a bank of dark blue clouds and is shining brightly right into my eyes. I stood up to adjust the blinds and saw the most beautiful scene of the blue clouds in the background, the sun shining gold on the hayfield, and the light filtering through the mesh of bare tree branches. I love winter. I love the low angle of the light, the sunrises and sunsets with their impressionistic colors and patterns, the sculptural quality of bare trees, the warm colors of the dormant grasses contrasted with the cool colors of the sky and the clouds. I love the way the ice makes everything look like it is coated in glass and makes it sparkle in the sunlight.

My almost complete Kiki Mariko Rug from
 "Mason Dixon Knitting Knitting Outside the Lines"
I am a fiber/textile/sewing/knitting/quilting person, as you may have noticed. I love wool and I love quilts. There are projects that I have to put away when the weather warms up because it gets too hot to have any more fabric touching you that is absolutely necessary to maintain modesty. A few years ago I started knitting a wool rug. It is thick and heavy and quickly became so long that it had to sit on my lap, then it had to trail down my legs, then it hung to the floor. By late in the spring, I had to put it away for the season. As soon as we had that first cold weather in November, I got it back out and finished it. I will post a picture on my blog--it is beautiful. I quickly moved on to wool socks and wool cowls so I can take advantage of of wool-wearing season. This time of the year, I can be found every evening dressed in a flannel nightgown, sitting on my couch with one dog or another right beside me and a quilt over my lap, knitting away on something warm and snuggly. 


Yes, I am aware of the treachery of winter, particularly for people who live in snow country. I lived in South Dakota for awhile. And I am very aware of the disruptions winter weather can cause--my daughter is sending me pictures of the icy conditions through which she is driving to work this morning. But here on the ranch, winter is good. I hope you can find the beauty in it, too.
I love pecan orchards in the winter with their neat rows of trees and green winter grass. 

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