Thanksgiving arrived along with the first winter storm of the season here in the Northeast United States. Biting cold, snow, wind — please, Mother Nature, I’m not ready yet! The older I get, the less ready I am for the arrival of winter.
New England is mostly a landscape of pastels at the best of seasons. From November on, that palette dwindles to brown, beige, charcoal gray, misty white. My front closet — the one that holds my winter armament of coats and gloves and scarves — reflects that palette.
Leather and down and wool, pretty dull, huh? But then an anomaly leaped to my eyes. Here it is:
A summer straw hat with its jaunty sunflower, perched atop a garment bag cheek by jowl with umbrellas and scarves and those drab winter coats —
Why haven’t I put this away, I wondered. And then I realized why. That straw hat is my token that winter is not all there is. Spring will come eventually, and not simply spring, but summer.
There is a time for everything under the sun, a time for leather and down and wool, for gloves and hats and scarves. That time is now. But there is also a time for sunlight and warmth and straw and sunflowers, and that time will come. We take our signs of hope where we find them.
Do you take winter (whenever that comes for you) in your stride? Or do you, like me, have to work with it?
Touch2Touch 
Winter is bad for me too, although in South Africa we do not have such severe winters as you do. I love happy bright summer days. If winter depresses you so much, you should follow the sun, maybe spend your winter months in a warmer country. You always welcome to visit me here in SA 🙂
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What a kind and delightful offer! We used to winter for a month in Mexico or in Arizona — which was very nice. But now we are old and no longer travel well — so I will fortify us with lots of movies set in beautiful places.
South Africa must be one of the very most beautiful!
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Tie it on with a long black scarf over the top of the hat and under the chin.
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Now there’s a thought! Sunflower smiling through the snowflakes —
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Or you could come visit us in Oz! We have lots of sunshine and in Queensland where I live, the temperature gets no lower than 9C or 10C. We only have two seasons, hot and cool! 😉
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I’ve wanted to visit Australia since I was a girl and read Arthur Upfield’s Napoleon Bonaparte mysteries set in the Outback — not that they’re household words any more.
But I’ve always found Australia fascinating. In my next life, I’m gonna get there, mate!
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I have tried to take winter in stride. I have tried psyching myself up for it. I have tried photographing winter’s beauty. I have tried talking myself into being okay with winter. Now, I proclaim “I hate the cold.” and this IS my last winter in North America. I am not doing this anymore and that’s okay.
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Telling it like it is, eh, Joss?
Your blogging friends are glad to have you around, wherever your geographical location may be!
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I am none for snow and ice, too. Temperatures around freezing hurt my skin. I develop rashes in my face. My legs freeze while waiting at the bus stop. I hate the mushy brown molten-snow-puddles, that come into my flat with my boots. The not-quite-daylight-days get literally on my nerves (I take St. John’s wort, when it gets too bad). I prefer a nice autumn (fall – whatever is right where you are staying). The only thing I am cool with – it is understood that I do not want to go out! Finally I am allowed to be a couch potatoe. But I DO have one winter coat in BRIGHT ORANGE! Take that, grey, brownish, muddy winter!
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ORANGE! Wow, Fran. You are one snazzy couch potato! I can’t think of a better retort to your perfect descriptor, grey brownish muddy winter!
(Hamburg winter in the film Mostly Martha looks just like that! Hanover the same?)
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Absolutely – though I live accidentally in a neighbourhood where most buildings were either made from red-bricks – and the house just over the street is glaring red!
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I do like the idea of a red house — or many red houses —
certainly in winter. Cheerful!
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A rainy, sometimes misty, snowless novemberish winter up to now – and I would like it to stay that way. This kind of winter sucks the colour out of the brickhouses – just the brightly red-painted house is really colourful. The rest is muffled, greyish-reddish-brownish … Think of old English working-people-quarters …
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Your description is vivid, Fran, however drab the houses are under gloomy skies.
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Thank you, the more so, since I am describing in a foreign language.
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I hate the cold too and rain, I think nights should be cold and wet and days hot and sunny. I’m such a child!
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You remind me how pleasant it is to listen to the rain when wrapped snugly in bedclothes.
I still feel like a child at those times, so there’s two of us.
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As Cindy said, our winters are less harsh than yours but I still struggle and as I get older I feel the cold penetrate my bones! But boy oh boy, when the summer arrives I make the most of it which is all one can do really. I hope your winter season is not too hard and sprinkled with loads of light and joyful moments to keep you warm Judith.
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Thanks for the comment and the WARM wishes. I hope your summer is hot and bright and sparkly too!
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Winter is not harsh here in India. We dread the scorching summer 🙂 Loved your post !
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Happy to welcome you on board! When I wish for heat I don’t think I could actually deal well with the summer heat of India. I was in Japan one summer and it was dripping wet hot, which I imagine India to be also. Many thanks for your visit.
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Judy, wonderful Judy, If you were a skier, you’d be joyous when it snowed.
It’s not too late to try it. For this winter Joan wrote the copy for a sign I’m going to wear on my back when I’m skiing/ “I’m 80 and still ahead of you.” I’d be delighted to pick up the two of you on the way to Vermont..
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Well, Dick, good try! But it was already too late when I was 19 and 20 —
I do love the sign and I hope you will wear it — love the thought of you flying down the mountain while those young whippersnappers behind you are fuming and turning green with envy!
We certainly would love to supply you with hot chocolate or another beverage of your choice when you’re either to-ing or fro-ing Vermont, though.
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I struggle through winter but I do get through. And there at the end of the snowstorm, is a rainbow – and sunshine and spring and straw hats. Yay! 🙂
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Yay! Me too!
🙂
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Down here in Philadelphia, where we have a micro-climate (warmer in the winter, hotter in the summer than the surrounding burbs), I’m developing a jaunty stride. We have been undulating between peaks of mild sportcoat weather and troughs of wet bitter cold. The snow storm, Cato (named after the libertarian Institute(?)), had a miserable wet attitude as he passed through here but never met the apocalyptic enthusiasm of our local weather forecasters. They had to fan out further and further from the metropolitan region’s epi-center to find the accumulation amounts that met their dire expectations. I think one was reporting from near you Judy in MA, another from a Pocono lodge nestled near the Appalachian trail, another from a fishing village in Labrador. In any case, we continue to surf this weather wave that hasn’t seemed to make up its mind yet.
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Cato (the Elder, as he was known by his buddies) was most famous during the whole time of the Punic Wars for beating the drums against Carthage, Rome’s enemy. Whenever anyone considered making peace, Cato would rise up and boom, Carthago delenda est! We’ve gotta destroy ’em, boys!
Is it any wonder that the snowstorm’s attitude is so miserable, considering who it was named after?
Those dudes at the Weather Channel have a lot to answer for!
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Another happy little skier weighs in here on the joys of winter, sorry Judith . . . and I love winter food. Can’t help thinking your lovely warm coats would go so well with some smashing red lipstick!
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If you ever need a borrow —
also of the unused snow shoes hanging in the garage.
I could probably turn up some smashing red lipstick, too!
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I don’t “work with it.” I struggle with it, even living in the High Desert. The absence of body mass makes it even more challenging. 🙂
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High Desert — what a great place to be! (I know it in Arizona, not in New Mexico.)
If I read you aright, a small spare tire, or “love handle”, might actually turn out to be an asset when the thermometer drops. Maybe I can forget about the struggle with the diet for a few months —
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It is 15 degrees here this morning at my cottage and I am bundling up to go out of doors because the sun is shining and the air will smell deliciously cold and faintly metallic with remnants of snow. I will tromp through a meadow looking for spent flower heads and the husks of milkweed. I will stand spellbound when a cardinal takes flight on ruby wings. I will be well wrapped in down and fleece. I will breathe deeply until the cold air makes my entire self tingle. I will duck into the woods when the wind is sharp and revel in the silence.
The only winter weather I don’t like is icy rain when I must drive the turnpike to daughter’s. Looks like this week I’ll be there longer than usual. There’s a Nor’eastah headed our way mid-week!
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Winter should hire you as its public relations person and lobbyist!
You actually make him/her/it sound enticing —
But you won’t have to settle for long for mere remnants of snow, I’m afraid. You may have enough of the white stuff after tomorrow’s promised/threatened Nor’eastah! Hope it’s gentler than advertised, for your travels’ sake, Pauline.
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Back Home in Mumbai, I’d often joke we have three seasons, harsh summers, summers with rains and mild summers. Here in a new city, the mercury is mercurial. it rains in December, and its quite chilly. Your post made me realise that change may not be welcome, but its best if you take it in your stride… make you appreciate finer things in life 🙂 Good to hear from you, had been miss you lately 🙂
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As I, you! Great to hear from you, Kamakshi. Where are you now? It’s never chilly in Mumbai — so are you somewhere up north? I have to track down your current blog — onward!
🙂
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Not up north, but a hillier city called Pune, which is about 250 Kms off Mumbai 🙂 I hope to get back to posting soon I have a lot to say but I’m back to studying and work all at once. But will be back soon 🙂 Stay blessed and have a wonderful holiday season!
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And you as well.
I’ll look up Pune on the map, and look forward to your blogging return.
🙂
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