The view from my office window before the snow got deep!
Twenty-One Years Ago This Week
My Family and I Moved…
…from sunny SoCal to not-so-sunny Cincinnati. It was one of the coldest, snowiest winters Ohio had ever experienced. Yet this year has surpassed it! Yesterday, I potty-walked my super-value-sized granddog Thea; she nearly disappeared as she paused to add her artful splash of yellow to the sea of white. The view from my window is positively Narnia-esque. So, Happy 21st Moving Day to us. Because, unlike Los Angeles…
They have winter here — every year!
As my old friend Allen put it, there are two seasons in Southern California: Summer and Not Summer. I used to winterize our apartment by closing the windows. My cold weather wardrobe consisted of: socks.
Right Before We Moved…
A new acquaintance in Cincinnati asked me if I’d ever seen snow. I laughed. “Of course! We go to the snow every year.” By which I meant we’d get in the car and drive up to the local mountains for the day. He laughed and said, “Ah, well, we don’t ‘go to’ the snow here. It comes to us.”
“How…convenient,” I thought.
I Honestly Like Snow
I love having four full seasons, even though each has its downside. (There’s a meaningful metaphor in there somewhere, but I’m too lazy to explore it.) Spring has weeds, plus grass, grass and more grass. Achoo! Summer has more weeds, and sweat, sweat, sweat. Autumn has endless raking. And Winter has driveway shoveling, and cars stuck in ditches.
Still, this winter has been particularly beautiful. And so, inspired by (and insulated from) the frozen scene beyond my office window, I’ll close with this frosty Robert Frostian ode:
Winter found a hoard of snow
still left in her bag, all ready to blow.
So here it is—quite swell, you know?
We’re digging hard for cars to tow.
Still, I can wait for grass to grow.
I don’t love shoveling, but, you know
I also really hate to mow.
Howdy Mitch and all?
Following closely behind every nature and season is a transformative nature and seasoning salience for growth and maturity in life.
Snow is not merely weather; it is a beautiful erasure. It arrives as a silent, crystalline shroud, whispering the truth that all things—our frantic ambitions, our loud scars, and the jagged edges of our grief—must eventually succumb to the hush of stasis.
There is a dark mercy in the freeze. The cold demands a seasonal death, a deliberate shedding of the superficial to protect the core. It mimics the soul’s own winter: that necessary, hollow period of isolation where the world turns monochrome and the air becomes sharp enough to cut. We endure the bite because we crave the clarity of the void. In the deep drift, we learn that life does not end in the dark; it simply waits, breathless and purified, beneath the weight of a white, forgiving silence.
Everything weighs or counts…
I actually love winter and snow. Here we are in February and it is 4℃. Saskatoon is melting. It is wet and dirty. Feb. usually can be our coldest month with deep freeze temperatures. Now everything is gone to hell. But maybe I can start up the greenhouse soon. A silver lining in a dark cloud.
!!!
I lived in Montana for 16 years and it was quite the opposite; The two seasons were 11 months of winter and one month of hellish heat. Give me good ole midwestern seasons, and trees with real leaves that change to something more than green.
!!
Love your post, your “ode”–and snow!! I still live in CA and have to “go to” the snow.
;>)
we’re practically neighbors! i’m in Columbus, Ohio and my view is very much the same!
Neigbors indeed, Lynne!
Texas is much like CA. There is a damn hot summer, then only a hot summer. Summer is 9 months long, then a week or two of fall, a few weeks of winter, then back to summer. I, too, lived in Cincinnati and MN during the cold winters of the early 90s. I like visiting the snow, but I prefer to leave it behind when I go home.
I don’t know, Phil. I think that Texas heat would be the dealbreaker for me.
I’m ready for spring.
Duly noted, Scott.
Snow was fun when I was a kid. . .
Oh, yeah. Anything I could slide down got my kid-vote, Joy!
I love the fun imagery of your ode to winter! 🙂
I think I love fall the most. I don’t look forward to allergies in the spring, and the constant noise from the lawnmowers and leaf blowers in the summertime.
If I had to choose just one, I’d go with fall too Chanel. But only when the leaves are still on the trees! ;>)
“Ah, well, we don’t ‘go to’ the snow here. It comes to us.” Which gets me thinking . . . can I go in witness protection. I wouldn’t mind hiding from the snow. Ha,ha. Oh, I can’t complain. When I was a kid, my mother used to say, you can complain about snow or live with it. We can’t change it, so you my as well learn to live with it. I didn’t like the advice at the time and I still do my fair share of complaining, but I still like the advice. Stay warm Mitch.
You too, Brian!
What you say about California, we say about Chennai. Chennai has only 3 seasons – hot, hotter, hottest.
;>)
Nice poem, Mitch. I like having four seasons, too.
Thanks, Andrew.
You’re welcome.
I love pictures of winter and snow…the real thing, not so much anymore. We used to live in Taos, and in nine years there I got all the snow I need 🙂
;>)
It’s been a bit rough the last couple of weeks, but I prefer cold weather over hot. When you’re cold, you just wear a layer or two and you’re good to go. Hot weather? My goodness, you can take off all your clothes and still feel freaking hot.
I agree, Edward. Plus, the neighbors complain when I mow naked.
😂 I almost spill the water on the keyboard. That was funny. I heard that some people actually do that. I would hate to be their neighbor.
It’s not snow I dislike. It’s the cold. I don’t mind mowing though. 🙂
Bundle up, Ruth❣
I agree about the varying seasons, each with pros and cons.
Mitch, I hope you can help me with something. My blog has been overrun with bots for some time; I’m told not to worry about it, but I’m curious who is actually reading all my old posts–bots or real folks–and how and where they’re appearing. Today, you “liked” a 2020 post I wrote about a friend who’d died, a Renaissance woman. It’s one of the most popular pieces lately–especially in Singapore. Can you tell me how you came to read it? If you like, you can email me via my blog’s Contact. I’d really appreciate any insights you can provide. Cheers, Annie
I’m afraid I don’t know how I happened on that particular post, Annie. Re. Attack of the bot: It’s been happening to me in waves. First from China, and now, like you, from Singapore, Vietnam and a couple of other countries. No likes, comments or subscriptions, just views. I think it’s probably AI search engines gathering data.
Thanks, Mitch. I’ve had it in waves a number of times, but now some of those titles appear daily. So I wondered….
Anyway, I’m pleased you liked my post about a remarkable woman!
New Hampshire and Vermont have five seasons: fall, winter, mud season, spring, and summer.
;>)
Living in central Canada, the joke is, we have two seasons. Winter and construction. Except now, with better technology, construction can continue through the winter!
As I get older, I am really losing my tolerance for winter. In reading the poem, though, I had to laugh. I actually enjoy both shoveling snow, and mowing lawns!
I celebrate doing both with a hearty serving of Ibuprofen!
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Once at a board meeting of the Christian school when I was the only woman on the board, I jokingly said I pictured heaven as winter with no colds or flu, spring with no hay fever, summer with no mosquitoes, and fall with no football. Those men didn’t speak to me fir the rest of the night.
I’m surprised you weren’t immediately voted off the board, Annie! ;>)
Mitch–I had no idea you were a fellow mid-westerner! I always picture you in California, whenever I read your blog. Now, I will have to change the view in my mind of your location when I read your blog! Very cool! I appreciate your blog, as so many of my friends and family, are wanting winter to end—but you are showing us all another side–and are rather upbeat about the weather—so thank you! 🙂
Aw, my pleasure, Katie❣
“We don’t go to the snow; it comes to us.” Keeper.
;>)
We, too, are having a wintery winter here in southeast Michigan. I don’t mind shoveling snow, when it is a little bit. Otherwise I pay someone to do it for me. On another note, if the icicles are covering your window, have you thought about more insulation? (When I moved here 13 years ago and we had a wintery winter and I had icicles, more insulation was suggested to avoid ice backing up under the roof and causing damage. I took the suggestion, and no more icicles–or worrying about gutter/roof damage.) Enjoy the beauty of winter.
I hadn’t heard there was a connection between icicles and insulation, Madeline. They’re actually pretty rare on our house. I kind of like it when we do get them.
I’m with you, Mitch. I much prefer four seasons to the two we had in South Florida (for 23 of the 40 years we lived in the Sunshine State): stifling hot and sticky-humid vs. warm and less humid. Six months of the former became a high price to pay for the latter, as the years went by! Of course, the biggest draw here: two grandchildren!
🧡
Oops! Also meant to mention: Robert Frost would surely have enjoyed your poem!
Winter is truly a season that takes my breath away … particularly when I’m venturing outside in the morning in sub-freezing temperatures to scrape the frost off my windshield. In hindsight, I probably should have sprung for the car with the remote-start option. Live and learn.
;>)
I still believe we have only one season, Summer with the monsoon for a few months in between, when the rain stops, it’s hot again.
I cannot imagine that view and I envy your four seasons 😁
!!!
My old friend in So Cal used to say that their two seasons were “Hot-and-Smoggy”, and “Really-Hot-and-Smoggy”. Around here, it’s “Road Construction”, and “Snow Removal”. But I’m okay with the slower pace.
Cheers! (ツ)v
And cheers to you, my friend!
from colby to wkrp
Happy moving-versary!