Hello spring... and winter!

Yesterday was a weird day. I woke up and decided to get a walk in before the day got going, both because I have been feeling slothful (having a bad head cold and laryngitis doesn't really put you in the exercising mood) and because I needed some fresh air. The morning was eerily quiet and gray, but slightly warm and the air was moist. Snow! It felt like snow. I took the walk and came back, only to notice as I was coming in the door these little guys: Buds on the lilac trees! How can there be snow if the trees think it's spring? About an hour later a light rain began to fall. Rain makes more sense in spring.

While I was doing some work (one of the reasons we could not go this year to the Perrino annual Christmas tree party) Doug set to putting up our Christmas tree - a blasphemy on all that I have held sacred about the holiday season for about thirty years. But a darn good-looking and convenient blasphemy, and one for which Doug has been pining for a while, so I caved. I have to admit that the glowing white tree looks very pretty when it's dark out. We'll just have to have the balsam candles burning constantly through the new year to get that real tree smell in the house, because unfortunately there is no fake balsam scent injected into the polyester limbs of this tree. But ever since Doug saw Chris and Chris's white tree he's been smitten, and the more time I spend looking at our tree, the more I can see why. It does create a bright spot in the house, and Doug likes it, the cats like it, and I don't have to water it or clean up its needles, which I will like, too. Tradition be gone for now, I guess. Time to make some new ones.

And maybe some new traditions are welcoming the first real winter snow in the pseudo-springtime, because last night as we were doing some quick Christmas shopping before a housewarming/house good-bye party at our friend Michael's house, it started to snow... and actually stick to the ground! Not only had I just seen buds on our lilac trees that morning, but the day before the temperatures were in the 50s, and the day before that the temperatures were just about 70 degrees during the day! It's hard to remember that warm day, though, when this morning it's about 30 degrees out and I'm looking at this: However, it is December, and I would much prefer a little snow cover to blooming trees - anything to alleviate my anxiety over the melting of the ice caps and the looming climate crisis. So, in this house we say to winter: