The Christmas tree, decorations, Santa gourds, Christmas candles, are all packed away. Some people leave everything up until January 6, Twelfth Night, but I’ve never done that. When another year rolls around, I like to have the old year snugly put away. This was a wonderful Christmas, a time of being with my family. I […]

The Visitor Who Did Not Come
A weather forecast promising four inches of snow, then two inches, then a dusting, then, maybe, nothing at all is singularly deflating. Yesterday was cold enough for snow, but it didn’t show up. What did show up was cold and a lot of nothing falling from the skies–not even oobleck, Dr. Seuss. In glancing back […]

Waiting for Old Man Winter
Here I sit–waiting. And looking out of my window on the world. Everything is about the same color–gray. It isn’t, really, I guess–the leaves are brown, neighbor’s house is red brick and his car is black but, if you’ll forgive my saying so, everything looks blah and gray. Is the weatherman right or will he […]

Waiting for the First Snowfall
Anticipation, eagerness, impatience–will it or won’t it? I gaze out at the dark morning, waiting for the first snowfall of the season. The morning is dark and damp. Although I can’t see rain falling, it must be raining some, a fine mist, perhaps, because driveway, street, and deck are wet. The temperature is dropping […]

Weather Lore and the Gift of Books
Interesting weather lore from Farmer’s Almanac: If there be ice in November that will bear a duck, there will be nothing thereafter but sleet and muck. Some of my friends just to the north are having snow already. And, we may see a few flakes today or Monday. It’s three degrees above freezing this […]

Home for Christmas
Are you in the mood for Christmas? What, you say! We haven’t even gotten to Labor Day? Well, just in case you’d like to think ahead, here’s a bit about a Christmas mystery. Nettie wanted nothing more than to spend Christmas with her uncle, Javin Granger, her last living relative. It had been forty […]

