Wintering

I'm beginning to get cabin fever, and just as slightly warmer temperatures arrive, an entire new weather system is headed our way.

More snow, and sadly combined with frozen precipitation.
The school children have been afforded  extra days  off school,  and yet their presence outside has been scarce.
Back when my daughter was young she would spend an entire afternoon outside with her neighborhood friends, sledding and building snowmen, only returning to the warmth of  home for a change of gloves, and some hot chocolate. Nowadays, it seems like the children stay inside and play computer games or watch TV.
Times have changed.

Winter Nesting

 

Cocooned in a blanket of ice and snow, our days are not much different from the isolating COVID days.
Days seem to run into weeks and weeks into months.
Many businesses are shuttered closed, employees unable to navigate the treacherous roads, especially the more rural ones that are left untreated.
I'm extremely grateful for a refrigerator and pantry full of food, and a house that is warm and cozy.
Others are not so lucky.

Woolly Socks And Flip-Flops

We've been spoiled up until this point, with warmer than usual days, many not requiring the wearing of a jacket.
The last few pleasant days of Autumn, with sunshine aplenty.

Last night, the  temperatures fell into the twenties, no more flip-flops, now the winter boots and woolly socks appear.

Mother Nature sprinkled the landscape with snow, just enough to decorate for the season.

The birds have taken to their nests, the turkeys lead their flocks to the nightly roost.

Winter days will soon be here,  but in just 109 short days, Spring will once again return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.”

~ Henry Beston : Northern Farm

Snow Day

Just as predicted, the snow came...
Huge wet snowflakes, that magically transformed the earth, now blanketed and white.
Yesterday I noticed how many birds had reappeared from their Winter nests, chirping and busying themselves about the landscape, the milder weather had stirred their souls.

Today, they are silenced once again.

Snowbound

Mother Nature left her calling card once again yesterday evening.
Within an hour of the snow falling, the landscape was completely transformed, the sky silenced.
With temperatures predicted below the freezing mark, it's a day of pot-roast simmering and nesting.

Oh, what a goodly and a glorious show;

The stately trees have decked themselves with white,

And stand transfigured in a robe of light;

Wearing for each lost leaf a flake of snow.

~ Richard Wilton (1827–1903)

The Snow Storm

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

The Snow Storm ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Soup's On

As with much of the nation we are experiencing a blast of cold wintry weather.
Snow today !
It's predicted for much of the coming week, with no more of the sixty degree weather we have been enjoying these past few days.
Such is the pleasure of living in the American South, one day wearing flip-flops, the next furry Ugg boots.


I've made a hearty fifteen bean soup today, chocked full of country ham, celery, onions, tomatoes, carrots, garlic, rosemary and chili spice.
Served with a slice of buttermilk cornbread, it's the ideal comfort food, on a Winter's day.
Come join us for a bowl.

We'll leave the light on for you !

If you feel like making your own pot, here's the original recipe.

I also add sausage meat ( of your choice)

Fresh Rosemary (1tablesoon) crushed

Two chicken stock cubes

Two sliced carrots

Two stalks of celery

Original 15 Bean Soup® recipe Hurst Beans

It's Beginning To Look Like A Charlie Brown Christmas

The snow continued to fall throughout the night, blustery wind carrying it to every nook and cranny.
Today, snow is still falling, I believe it is the beginning of the season...

The Snow Storm.

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,

Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,

Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air

Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,

And veils the farmhouse at the garden's end.

The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet

Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit

Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm.

The Snow Storm ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson