Huddles and Cuddles oh my it’s cold
Counting down -1, -3, -7, -12, -14, -16… wind chill 35 to 40 below, whoa!
The count began at dawn and slowly progressed, or more accurately said, regressed, as the sun failed to show herself, she remained shuddering behind clouds as bloodless as veal. Backward the thermometer fled racing to the bottom faster than a headless hen. Which schools are closed? Read through the long list if you have nothing better to do, or just know the answer is ALL.
It is time for a good ole fashioned Vermont winter cold day. The kind we will talk about for a lifetime of remembering when’s. The day the ski lifts stopped lifting, event calendars stood empty, and children everywhere hollered hooray, while mom baked cookies, and scuttled for crayons, board games, and craft kits, while simultaneously stirring the hot chocolate and doing her other job via zoom.
Stepping out onto the back stairs the wood moans and creeks as startled overnighter (Mourning Doves) reluctantly vacate the relative comfort of the house foundation and stair board roof. Chipped sunflower seed for the Siskins, and goldfinches; mixed seed for the Juncos, Tree Sparrows, and Cardinal; peanuts for the Chickadees, Woodpeckers, Red-breasted, and White-breasted Nuthatches, Starlings, Blue-jays, Titmouse (sadly no longer a pair), and of course the red squirrels, grey squirrels and the two rabbits living under one of our wood piles, all are happy to eat any seed we put out that falls to the ground. Oh how we wonder where they sleep and do they cuddle up together by the dozens, and what life must be like on any day, but especially today, without hot coffee!
Another log goes on the fire as we give thanks to the years and years of growth that mighty tree withstood all the weather Vermont could throw at it, and now in a flash gives us its last in a burst of warmth and fiery beauty.
The thermometer still in full reverse, glows red, perhaps this being the reason Valentine’s Day is held in February, in honor of the lifeblood of thermometers that remain cheery red amidst the frosty bitter white cold. How cold? Bitter, Biting, Boreal, Brisk, Brumal, Gelid, Hiemal, Icy, Nippy, One-Dog Night, Penetrating, Polar, Raw, Rimy, Severe, Sharp, Sleety, Snappy, Stinginging, Wintry.
No buts about it, it is cold out there, best stay inside or you will freeze your butt off.
In this cold, I feel the sunshine though she is very far at bay. Stepping outside shocks my senses and awakens my primal awareness of life and the outer edges of death stalking me like a sharp-shinned hawk keeping an eagle eye out for the slightest weakness or numb reaction a sign of weakness.
This cold envelops me into a cocoon, wrapped in a book, with amniotic fluids of chocolate, spiced tea, crackling fire, and bustling birds before me. The thermometer drops another digit sounding off like a ticking grandfather clock, wind whips up frozen granules of what was once snow, now a sand storm of ice.
Covid Cold Confined.
Contrasted with dreams of spring, albeit premature dreams, surely to be closeted away by many more battering winter days. Plans for JFiN, Jericho Families in Nature walks beginning in April stir me with delight, thinking of meeting up with other families in nature, dammed be the cold, Covid, and confinement. We are Vermont Strong. We are a community. We are tough Vermonters. Spring will come. We will have our three days of Summer. Crocus and bumblebee nestled below mentor us in patience.
Meanwhile, we make our mark in the cold, our hearts splurge in the joy of being together inside while the motors of time slow just a little, the sap holds in place, and thoughts turn to this year’s Valentine’s day theme, Nature Love Project.
Colored pencils and paper, markers, crayons, paints, scissors, and rulers come out of the closet. Mother nature we behold you, though we often beset your very desire to nurture us. On this cold and blustery day, we will create art as crisp as the outside air, fiery red to match hot embers in the wood stove, as sweet as our hot chocolate, and mom’s cookies. We will blanket you with our warm love to help send the chill away.
And if that is not enough, we will huddle and cuddle, cause it is an old-fashioned Vermont wintery day when the temperatures outside are way below. But just so you know, we aim to show, this will be a day to remember not just for how low can you (temperature) go, but also that “Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Read more about how you can join in on the 'Valentine's theme' of Nature Love Project, at these two links.
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2023/01/nature-love-project-valentines-day-2023.html
https://jerichovermont.blogspot.com/2023/01/happy-valentines-to-nature.html
Cold contrives to keep us in, but creative juices will not be so constrained, in fact, they are invigorated by huddles and cuddles. Will you show nature how much you love her with your artwork and writings for Valentine's day?
Laugh, Dream, Try and Do Good
Bernie
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