Winter never bothered me as a child. The cold didn't seem to affect me badly and I had fun with friends and even by myself making forts and snow sculptures and standing at the bus stop with a runny nose and a homemade scarf waiting to see a glimpse of yellow in the never ending white landscape. Even as a young adult it didn't phase me. I recall distinctly the time I was leaving work during a snow storm, completely unprepared...and cleaned off the windshield and windows of my car bare handed...I had no gloves. No problem! So, it's a little cold? So what?
When my daughter was small I did my best to try and continue to "enjoy" the winter, for her sake. Snowmen! Sledding! Oh yes, we went sledding...I spent an entire day with her going up and down an enormous hill in Ann Arbor. But I was no longer enamored of the winter chill in general.
Michigan winters were long and dark. There was a particular weatherman who managed to make me nearly homicidal...I wanted to throw a brick at the damned television every time he described a day as "drab." Today will be drab. Today will be dreary. Today you will want to freaking crawl into a hole and cover yourself up forever and ever and ever. I hated him. I hated Michigan. I hated winter. I hated "Standard Time." I wanted it all to end.
As things tend to do, eventually, it did all end. And now I find myself even older but living in Italy. The winters here are milder. They aren't any brighter, per se...because the mountains to the west of us bring a rather abrupt ending to daylight once the sun sinks below the peak, quite dramatically in the winter months. But the temperatures are much milder and they bring the rainy season, which also brings the fabulous fog. I love the fog. I love "gothic days," Hounds of the Baskervilles. Heathcliff and Catherine on the moors. A foggy day in London town. It's spooky and romantic and enchanting all at the same time.
So once again, winter is becoming charming, in it's way. A relief from the relentless heat, the lack of water....the sweaty nights. Now we come inside and cook stews and casseroles to warm our innards....hot cups of tea in the morning to start the day. Sweatshirts and lined socks... and the heavy winter quilt on the bed. Cats putting aside their petty differences and beginning to make "cat pies" as they seek the body warmth of one another.
Inside, we are cozy....plenty of heat, if we want. Lots of warm clothes. We are fortunate, indeed. And lights. We used to call them "Christmas" lights....or string lights...or fairy lights. They have morphed over the years and people besides myself apparently love them. I love them all year round, but in the summer the sun stays out nearly till 10 pm! Now is the time for fairy lights and that gladdens my heart. It makes the darkness less despairing. It makes winter less forbidding. A simple string of lights. Or a few. We seem to acquire more as each season approaches. We have dinner by "fairy" light. We have clear bottles (sold all year round here for those who make their own wine or olive oil)..with strings displayed inside them in the living room...on the mantle, on the bookcase. The daylight dwindles until the solstice. We will have our lights to enjoy until the spring brings longer evenings once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment