What a Difference a Day Makes: Back to Winter!

The snow began before we awoke, and by the time I got up and got out for my walk, there was already an inch or two of snow on the ground. The forecast was calling for about three to six inches, with the possibility of more (we eventually ended up with about five inches of fluffy snow). I decided that conditions would be better for walking earlier in the day.

My husband, of course, thought I was a total nutcase: "It's snowing! Look at the wind blowing sideways! This isn't normal. NOBODY does this. NOBODY goes out into the snow with a camera under their jacket in the blowing wind to take pictures. NOBODY!"

But I guess I AM crazy (he should know, he's the psychologist!), so I set out on my walk, nabbing my camera, tucking it under my jacket, and grabbing my pink umbrella and little pink tunes box. It was indeed snowing a lot and blowing some (though not as much as it would later in the day).

My procedure for taking a photo goes like this: I hold the umbrella between me and the wind and snow, and I keep my camera tucked under my coat until I am ready to take a picture. Then I brush off all the snowflakes, unzip my coat, take the camera out of the camera bag, adjust my umbrella to cover us, turn the camera on, take the lens cap off the camera, take my pictures, put the lens cap back ON the camera, turn the camera off, put it back in the camera bag, zip up my coat, and keep walking!

Yes, it's a lot. But don't you worry. I'm nobody's martyr. I love the frigid winter beauties. I was BORN in December, and some of the first sweet caresses to my face were those made by the strong winter wind. The world I was born into was a winter world, and I feel even more alive every time the cold and snow arrive!

Anyway, that's the back-story to the pictures. As you can tell, this isn't my first rodeo.  :-)  My neighborhood walk took me on the side roads behind our house: Smith to Blue Spruce to Hemlock to Red Pine to Stonerow, over to Cornfield, and back. I was out for about 50 minutes, and made it home in time for Columbo. (Yes, Saturday is amazing; there are Columbo episodes on COZI TV at 10 a.m., 8 p.m., and 10 p.m. Yes, I know. Aren't we lucky?)

By the time I headed back, the snow had already started to cover my tracks. I took this photo on Stonerow, which I think is one of the prettiest little lanes around. And in fact, I could have bought a house here. The final house I looked at before deciding on the one I bought was on this street (but it cost $50 thousand more than the one I ended up with - that was an easy decision!).

And so as I walk this street, I remember standing in the kitchen of that last house, practically bouncing up and down, talking with my real estate agent, and saying, THAT HOUSE, THAT HOUSE we just saw, I want THAT house, I want to make an offer! (And indeed, I had a contract in hand by the end of the following day.) So as I get to this street, I have that same feeling: I am oh so close to coming home!

The tree up on the right is really gorgeous in October, and you got to see this view then. So I thought it would be fun to show it to you again in winter time, with snow. So let's look back on the original fall photo, which is here, and enjoy looking at it in winter this time!

Now, I am always listening to my tunes box when I go walking. And I have to tell you that there was a whole year that I listened to pretty much nothing but Alison Krauss (A Hundred Miles or More) and Warren Zevon (The Best of Warren Zevon, A Quiet Normal Life). Yep, A to Z! Today's first musical selection is Warren Zevon, with Accidentally Like a Martyr. And here is a Bob Dylan cover of the same tune. The second one is Sylvia, with Nobody. The third is Skylar Grey, with I'm Coming Home, and this viewer comment made me laugh out loud: This song makes me want to go home even when I'm literally home.