My Favorite Time of the Year-Winter!

If you have read my blog previously, you will note the title of this post is laced with sarcasm.  If not, read  my letter to Winter and more of my thoughts regarding this wonderful season.

So, I shoveled snow for the second time this winter.  A little bit more than we had the day before Thanksgiving and in mid-December.  Or maybe it just seemed like it.  Because I was out there shoveling the driveway in the dark after a long day.

Do I look happy?

If we have another winter as we did last year, I just don't know what I am going to do.  Maybe stage a sit-in kind of protest.  Wrapped in my quilt.  In front of the fireplace.  Drinking hot toddies.

Here are a couple of pictures of last year's piles. 












I have a confession.  I finally gave in and took advantage of the pile of snow at the end of the driveway.  Our yard slopes down from front to back.  Click here.  I'm a big kid.  And it was right in the middle of the Winter Olympics. 

Sometimes, your better off playing by the rules.  And winter rules when it arrives.  That's why there is a move to a warm climate in my future. 

Stay warm.  Whatever way you can.  Maybe a fire and a hot toddy?

I Still Hate You, Winter

I don't think my Trumpet Vine Trellises will ever be the same!

This is a Dogwood Tree.  Looks more like a Weeping Cherry.

Have you ever heard this story?
A man was walking down the street one day.  The wind bet the sun that he could force the man to take off his coat and the sun could not.  The sun agreed to the bet.  The wind began blowing, straight into the man.  The man put his hands in his pockets and pulled his coat a bit tighter around himself.  The wind blew harder, thinking he would blow that coat right off the man.  The man buttoned his coat tightly, all the way up to the neck and shoved his hands deep into his pockets, hugging his secured coat as close to his body as he could.  The wind blew even harder, but to no avail.  The man was not taking off his coat.  Then it was the sun's turn.  The sun shone.  The man unbuttoned his coat.  The sun shone even more brilliantly and the man took off his coat, slinging it over his shoulder.  He even began whistling a tune as he walked.  The sun turned to the wind.  "See.  All it takes a little sunshine to warm a man from the inside out." 

I might be a little off on the ending of the story, but you get the point.  As beautiful a spectacle the snow and ice can be, it does not win me over to winter.  The weight bears down on the branches of the trees and the shrubs and everything else.  It will all sparkle later if the sun comes out, making the woods look like a crystal cathedral.  The trees, however, can only stand so much.  The ground is littered with smaller branches and I sit here listening to the bigger branches falling to the floor of the woods through the icy arms of the trees.  The sound is different this time than when a branch falls in any other season.  The sound can even be musical.  However, it still does not change my attitude.  Our snow adventure this winter season began early in December and has not stopped.  Looks like February is going to be a loooong month.  Oh well.  Might as well make the most of it.  I do not have to go anywhere today and there is plenty of wood for the fireplace.  Maybe I'll roast a weeny. 

Winter, I'm Breaking Up with You!

Dear Winter,

That last bout of arctic weather is the final straw. I have put up with your coldness for way too long. I cannot stand the feel of your icy breath in my face and down the back of my neck. You chill me to the bone!

Must you always precipitate on the roads and sidewalks? Why can't you do that in the yard and landscaping?! I am so sick of cleaning up after you. It is one thing to clean up after a small child, but you too?! You have fooled me time and again, allowing my good friend the sun to come and visit, only to ruin it with your below freezing slap in the face. How cruel! I swear you are laughing at me as your North winds blow through the trees. Your promises of crisp, clean air and unmarred blankets of white snow are no longer enough. Warm, toasty fires while in the midst of you please me no more. You make my back ache shoveling your snow. My joints stiffen at the mere thought of you. I have become an expert at the icy sidewalk shuffle (not an area of expertise I desire). I have had enough!

Winter, I am leaving you for Summer. At least when he rains, I don't risk falling on my backside when I step out the door.

Goodbye, Winter. I am leaving my parka and snow boots behind. I will not need them where I am going.

With a bitter-cold heart,
Mimi "Cold Feet"

Every Year at this Time

a harsh reality hits me....fall is really here and winter is on the way.  I hate winter.  I hate the cold, I hate the snow and ice, I hate winter clothes, I hate wearing shoes.  The only redeeming quality that winter has is being able to wrap myself up in my t-shirt quilt and lay in front of a roaring fire, dreaming of summer.  Since fall precedes that dastardly winter season, I have a strong dislike for it.  It is only a strong dislike for these reasons: 

How can I hate a season that gives us such scenery?