Saturday 8 January 2011

A Promise

We've had our fair share of snow, photographic evidence of which can be found in my blog, for instance here and here.

This week, things took a dramatic turn temperature-wise when, in less than 48 hours, the thermometer climbed from -9 C (15 F) to +10 C (50 F) - that's right, from 15 to 50! (It somehow sounds more impressive in Fahrenheit).

Now, the only snow left is in ugly greyish-black heaps in the corners of the supermarket's parking lot and along some roads. When I look out from my kitchen window, the view that prompted me to report directly from Winter Wonderland shows a very different picture: bare trees, true, but green grass and brown earth.

During the afternoon, I was out in town, my coat wide open and feeling the sun on my face. When I came back, my living room and my bed room (the one where I so often sit sunbathing on the
window sill, as my long-term blog readers will know) were sun-filled and beautiful, and I opened the windows wide to let the warmth and the birdsong in.

At 13 Celsius (it's incredible, isn't it! That is 55 F), this 8th of January already carried a definite hint of spring. The birds were feeling it, too, and when I saw the neighbours' cat down in the small garden that belongs to our house, he was obviously a very happy cat, rolling around on the paved path and rubbing his head against the wooden board that acts as a miniature fence for their tomato beds.

I know that this pre-spring is not going to last. By the middle or end of next week, more snow is expected, and the temperature will drop again.

But for today, I had a promise of spring, and it soothed me.

One day, it will be there, and I will be out again in the sun, legs bare and with no coat, and life will have a lightness about it that I seem unable to achieve during winter.

8 comments:

  1. and today, Atlanta is hit with a snow storm... we just don't know how to act.. lol

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  2. HiKath!!! Is that really you? :-)
    Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read & comment on here.
    I hope the snow storm is not too adversely affecting things at your end.

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  3. We have family in the Atlanta area...schools closed, offices closed, and the airport (busiest airport in the world!) almost shut down. Most snow since 1993. And, yes, they don't know how to act nor do they know how to drive in snow/ice conditions.

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  4. Well, over here, they should know - and yet, public life came almost to a halt in some places here, too. People seemed so surprised to see snow in December... and they really shouldn't be, we have snow every winter.
    I hope your family are all cosy and warm!

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  5. Though I like spring just fine, it seems I am most alive in these cold, snowy, blowy, windy, bright sunshiny or steel gray days. :<)

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  6. I'm trying to enjoy each day as it arrives, but I can't help but smile to myself knowing spring is not far ahead.
    Here's to apple blossom!
    xx
    julie

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  7. i love what julie said about apple blossoms....me too....waiting for apple blossoms....

    kary
    xxxx

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  8. Nan, I've always known you are special and unusual - now there is even one more reason to believe that :-)

    Julie, my approach usually is to try and find something good about each type of weather, too, but when winter does not seem to end and I need to wrap in layers and layers of clothing each time I leave the house, it gets rather exhausting.

    Kary, cherries are earlier than apples in my area - I will let you know as soon as the cherry tree in front of my kitchen window looks like a fluffy white cloud!

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