Winter (again), and in a pretty big way. As in shovel, shovel, shovel, brrrr…
It seems pretty clear at this point we’ll have snow for Christmas.
Winter (again), and in a pretty big way. As in shovel, shovel, shovel, brrrr…
It seems pretty clear at this point we’ll have snow for Christmas.
Winter, that is.
Last evening, we had rain that turned to snow after midnight. The result, of course, it a bit of an icy mess.
February 15, and winter finally decided show up:
And it’s awfully pretty, I gotta give it that!
Long-time readers may remember my Three Winter Questions about When It Will Snow: by Halloween? by Thanksgiving? by Christmas? Each year the answers vary. Most years, though, the first answer is no.
Not this year. Bad news for trick-n-treatin’ kids.
Last month I put out two editions of Friday Notes, and this month I almost missed posting any (today being my last chance). To some extent, that’s just normal ebb and flow, but it’s also that I’ve been distracted by Real Life™ (such as it is).
I’ve been doing a lot of (in many cases rather interesting) reading lately — words going in rather than out — and I think any writer will tell you that’s the easier direction. Sometimes the much easier direction.
But I do have some notes (and pictures)…
Since my last post, I’ve been metaphorically becalmed. Which might sound nice, but it’s a term sailors use when there’s no wind, and they’re stuck in one place. Lately, I’ve felt as if there was no wind in my sails.
Some of that is seasonal. The short days, and then that damned “falling back” with its even earlier sunsets. The winter cold and the joy/misery of snow. (I genuinely do enjoy getting outside and shoveling, but it gets harder every year. Growing old is a pain.)
I thought maybe I could kickstart myself with a Friday Notes post.
I hadn’t planned to post today, but I can’t resist the allure of 11+11=22. That’s just too tasty. Bonus, it also works in the arguably more sensible European mode of day–month–year. (Although, as mentioned in the previous Notes, I prefer year–month–day because it sorts nicely.)
The last two posts were heavy on the math, so I promise (other than the date thing) no math in this one. But since it’s unplanned, it might end up a bit of a ramble.
But then that’s what Friday Notes are for!
I get a kick from the patterns of life. They don’t always mean anything, but they can be fun to notice. For example, nine years ago I posted Instant Winter, which, among other things celebrates the tiny (meaningless) pattern of the date that day: 12-12-12 (You can arrange the year-month-day any which way you like!) Nine years later, it’s December 12th again, but the year is backwards: 12-12-21

12-12-21 after much shoveling. It was up to 3 feet in places!
That post also celebrated, as its name says, the sudden arrival of winter (late as usual these days). And per that, it arrived late again this year, but when it finally did show up it, came in with a bang (I don’t know about lions in March, but December seems to roar).

11-25-21 and not a drop of snow in sight!
It didn’t come anywhere close to snowing for Halloween, and there wasn’t a flake in sight for Thanksgiving, but it seems certain we’ll have a ton of the stuff for Christmas! Winter and snow cause all sorts of small issues, but many years of conditioning have linked snow and Christmas for me.

12-7-21 It always starts so softly and innocently…
Time to break out the shovels!
§
In other news, I’ve been reading books and watching TV shows, and I’d love to tell you about them, but I’ve already gone on long enough for one post.
Stay warm, my friends! Go forth and spread beauty and light.
∇
I wanted to call this post “Instant Winter” but used that title eight years ago. Pity given that, as of yesterday morning we had no snow, and by 5 pm it looked like the picture above.
It would have been a good title.

We got our first snowfall of the season today. It melted immediately, but it was really pretty while the big soft flakes were pouring down.
Snow “pouring” was the topic of a small controversy once long ago…