The Days Were Clear and Bright
The days were clear and bright. Laura and Mary stood on chairs by the window and looked out across the glittering snow at the glittering trees. Snow was piled all along their bare, dark branches, and it sparkled in the sunshine. Icicles hung from the eaves of the house to the snowbanks, great icicles as large at the top of Laura’s arm. They were like glass and full of sharp lights.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House in the Big Woods)
One of my favorite things to see in the winter are icicles. We don’t get them very often since our home is well insulated, but when the sun shines brightly on a cold day it melts the snow on our dark roof. This makes icicles form on our front porch. They’re so lovely with the blue skies behind them and the sun making them sparkle. They don’t last long, one moment they’re gracing the front porch and the next they’re gone. I’m glad I got out to capture a few photos when I did, they were beautiful.
It took me a few patient moments to catch this drip falling from the icicle. If you look at the large image you can see that the drop reflects the ground upside down, wonderful!
Icicles are one of my favorite parts of winter, they always seem to come as the days get longer and sun gets warmer. I especially love them on days like this when they sparkle in the sunlight, it’s almost as if they’re announcing the coming of spring! Most likely there will be no more icicles this winter. They will give way to leaves that will clog the gutters.
What’s your favorite part of winter, the snow, the ice, the cooler weather for your southerners?
Filed under Quote, Seasons, Weather | Comments (10)Tap Tap Tap Maple Sap
These are the words to the first song I ever learned to play on the piano when I was a little girl. I still remember sitting at the old piano in the basement plinking out those keys while singing along, all the while waiting for kitchen timer to ding so I could quit practicing. You can guess why I was humming this song yesterday.
It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperatures climbed slightly above freezing. Not quite prime sugaring season yet, but we wanted to get some of our trees tapped since tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be close to 40. We were just going to put one tap in the tree we can see from the kitchen window, so we could watch it. When it started flowing we would install the rest of the taps. As soon as we tapped the tree a little drop of sap appeared on the end of the spile. It was warm enough yesterday to start the sap flowing.
Since the sap was flowing we put in all 12 taps that we had on hand. We ordered a bunch more spiles a week ago, but haven’t received them yet, they’ll be put in as soon as we get them. The taps produced about a gallon of sap by dusk, it will be stored until we get more before boiling it down. It’s forecasted to be almost 40 today which should produce good sap flow. But then it’s supposed to get cold again next week which will probably stop the flow. We’re hoping for a good sugaring season this year resulting in a few gallons of syrup.
What kind of syrup is in your cupboard, the real stuff or Aunt Jemima?
No Winter Garden
Last year at this time I was harvesting my first batch of spinach from the garden. Notice the sun and lack of snow, we currently have around 3 feet of snow on the raised beds.
I planted some spinach last fall hoping for the same results, but the weather turned cold very early. That coupled with a really early frost delayed the growth of the spinach enough that I don’t have any to harvest at the moment (not to mention all the snow). I should still have an early spring harvest, perhaps in late March or early April if the weather warms.
Sadly I will have no mid-February harvest of spinach this year. I’ll have to buy my greens at the market.
Do you do any winter gardening?
Quote of the Day: Hal Borland
I really enjoy living in an area that has four distinct seasons. I grew up in South America where we had a dry season and a rainy season, and there wasn’t much difference between them except the amount of rain. Here in NE Ohio we have winter, spring, summer, and fall. It’s hard to pick a favorite, I really enjoy them all. Each one has it’s beauty and it’s difficulties, but it’s nice to experience them all.
What seasons do you have in your neck of the woods? Do you have a favorite?
Filed under Quote, Seasons | Comments (11)Quote of Day: Little House in the Big Woods
Now the winter seemed long. Laura and Mary began to be tired of staying always in the house.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House in the Big Woods)
Winter is starting to seem long to me. We had a nice sunny warm day last week and it seemed like spring was on it’s way. We went for a nice long walk to enjoy the weather. This week we got a bunch more snow and the temps are back down into the single digits. I know we still have many more long weeks of winter, but I start getting antsy for spring once we have one nice day. Since I haven’t ordered any of my seeds yet, I should be thankful we still have so much winter left. I’ll be doing that next week after I get my taxes finished.
Do you tire of being in the house during the cold winter months?
Filed under Seasons, Weather | Comments (13)
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