Beauty is everywhere if can only see it. The way I look at winter is that it makes me love Spring so much. Some woman sent me the standard social media snarky note the other day saying she moved to Florida and loves it, and would hang herself rather than move back to upstate New York.
She thought my fondness for winters was pathetic.
She lives within walking distance of the Philadelphia Phillies Spring Training camp, she said, and life could not be better. She said she pitied me freezing and sliding around in my sweet little town.
You know how sweet and patient I am with snarky people, but I said I was glad we both were happy with where she lived. My ambition in life is not to live near a Spring Baseball Training Camp (my daughter might like it, she is a big-short sports editor in NYC).
I love the Winter Pasture because it gives me the chance to witness beauty like this very old Apple Tree, which we have been fighting to save for several years now. Spring is only five or six weeks away and this winter lacks punch.
It is offering some snow and ice, and the point of winter is that it is beautiful and gives us the chance to sit by the woodstove and talk and doze and read every night. It is so nice to sit by a fire.
It makes Spring especially beautiful and shows us a side and range of nature that we would never see in another place. We know just how much time we have left for Spring. And the first thing I do in Spring is start getting ready for winter.
Winter is hard sometimes, for sure, but it suits us, we are where we should be, where we wish to be, where we fought to be. How monotonous for me to be warm all year long, I think I’d just rot.
But I have no argument with people who like it. I’m glad you like it, Cynthia.
Winter is a part of our lives, another door through which life enters and enriches and challenges us.
I do like thinking of my Florida friend going to the baseball park every day, sitting in her shorts and sun hat, yelling at the Phillies to get their shit together. I hope she is happy.
I look at winter as a part of our natural environment just as spring, summer and fall are. We humans are so fortunate to exist in this environment called “Earth”, to experience the joys and disappointments that go hand in hand 365 days a year without fail. Any ecologist could tell you that were it not for our planet’s resting period during winter in the northern latitudes then the re-birthing of the planet in spring and summer would be far less evident and appreciated or spectacular. We humans are so fortunate to be able to share our existence with nature.
That is a glorious photo, Jon.
I live in the Midwest where winters and summers can both be fierce. Every season has its own beauty. I love the changing of the seasons and especially love winter. The earth is resting after its growing season. We can learn from this!
What a SENSATIONAL TREE.
It is “sometimes winter” here too. I did see the sun peek out for a second yesterday. It lifted my spirits.