We all tend to love snow the best from our cozy places inside looking out or when we can have time to have fun in it, but it is less on our list when we have to work/school/be out in it for things other than said fun. My sensibilities tend to lose it when it is ‘too cold’ to snow, that even sounds wrong. A nice thick blanket of insulating snow is not only lovely, and better than ice or just a cold rainy season because it also gives our microclimate time to rest and recharge. Most of our favorite things need this process of deep cold and insulation — like New England fruits, Maple trees, all kinds of seeds and animals who hibernate or get various nutrition during this time (you may think it is a particularly lean time but it also offers a necessary variety, as long as it is not too long a season or too harsh). And maybe us, too.
Some folks swear they prefer the Northeast because they ‘need 4 seasons’, and I can see that, though other climates have such lovely different forms of those seasons — some more subtle than others, some you just have to get to know (these NE 4 are a little colonialist fantasy, if you ask me). We loved living in the high desert of New Mexico and having our coffee in the courtyard in just a sweater in February (you want a ton of snow, just go 20 minutes up the mountain right there and you can find snow up into July). Don’t get me wrong, the particulars of NE seasons are wonderful but I prefer they honor the changes the world is going through right now, too. It’s not just the negativity of climate change to focus on, but also the amazing adaptation of our environment (human and nonhuman) — the shift in mushroom fruit available, the renewed stability of some species, the movement of the treeline…and our connection to what we are able to recognize and introduce ourselves to: new friends, old friends all having some time together to make some new and stronger…our strength lies in diversity and consolidation of experience and sense.
With all of that in mind, here are some little moments we are experiencing right now — evenings by the woodstove (our three chairs like the three little bears, the dog in his bed, the cat stealing our seats when we go to get something), crafting/sewing/crocheting warmy things, porcupines in the apple trees (we watched her way too long), shadowy forest cows (deer) on the lawn in the bright moonlight, stews/soups/and casseroles redolent with carmelization and richness (with crusty sourdough bread, of course) or Spanish Tortilla or Ham Hocks with Collards (thank you for most of our meals from Lazy Acres, Snafu Acres, Andrews Farm, Dig Deep Farm, Goranson Farm, and gracious community gifts), lap blankets and family readings of the Norton Short Story Collection, hot cider (maybe with a little Scotch), crunchy snow drifts (and images of the bird bath out in the garden heaped with snow, and all of the other bits we didn’t put away before they became yard mounds), finding family tree notes from my g-ma in old tea dishes, finding studio scenes of a decade of arts from the dancing dervish that is our child, going to bed earlier (maybe to read, maybe to just sleep a little more, a little longer), and getting closer to the longest night to celebrate the returning sun…
Rock Bottom Homestead 