The weather outside was frightful, and the woodstove so delightful, and since there’s no place [I wanted] to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
And it did.
My husband and I shoveled eighteen inches off the driveway and walks this morning, and then, having freed the cars for use, chose to stay home.
And I, who doesn’t much enjoy the daily grind of cooking--peel, chop, boil, broil, serve, clean up, repeat daily—spent the day cooking. I baked meat loaf and lasagne, and then tackled the carrots we had only recently pulled from the back yard garden. Root vegetables can stay in the ground until a freeze, so we left them until the weather said, “Pull now.”
It seemed odd to peel and slice fresh garden produce while the snow swirled, and odder still to utterly enjoy it. Usually preparing veggies for canning or freezing is a late August chore. Standing over a pot of boiling beans, beets, tomatoes, or whatever in 90 degree weather isn’t all that much fun, just a necessary task.
But peeling, slicing, and preserving a taste of summer in the midst of a winter storm was pleasure. Shredding carrots for muffins that filled the house with cinnamon warmth was delightful. And of course eating a buttered muffin warm from the oven was worth staying home for.
Let it snow, again!
And yet, I was ever aware of those less fortunate, those on the streets, those whose stomachs grumble, roar even, with hunger, those with no shelter, cold and alone… The awareness tempers my pleasure, while making me ever more grateful for what I have.
~~~~~
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. ~Saint Augustine
Comments
Lovely words and the photos are exquisite. Those chairs look really chilly!
And I could smell the carrots. I cannot grow carrots in my concrete courtyard, everything must be in plantpots, but along with broccoli, I eat a good deal of them. Conveniently, perhaps curiously, the minimart bunches carrots and broccoli together!
I've been buying fresh carrot & coriander soup ... It's the only vegetarian soup I make that Cailean likes (he completely ignores pumpkin or tomato).
It is the Winter Solstice and I wonder if there are any daft Druids running about Stonehenge in the snow and cold ... and dark. Not sure when the sun rises in the south of England on 21 December, but if it gets above our horizon, it won't be till after nine this morning. It will be dark again not long after two.
But more daylight is coming each day and week from today.
As they sing in the Rocky Horror Picture Show ... "There's a light in the darkness of everybody's life ..."
Sometimes one has to wait for it, and search the horizon, but creation is built on and of light.
Keep warm! Merry Berry! Holly Jolly!
And to all a Good Light!
Ross & Cailean
Our weather is a bit blustery tonight, but certainly nothing like yours.
I LOVED your photos. I'm always looking for snowy landscapes for my screen saver and snatched one--hope you don't mind--for the Christmas season. The two chairs. How divine.
Enjoy your holidays. s
Ross, I'm glad Cailean eats so well. I'm sure you're looking forward to the lengthening of the daylight hours again.
Rozel, be careful what you wish for.