Considering how much of the country is getting a major blast of winter at the moment, you’d probably prefer to see a photo of a nice, warm beach somewhere. Sorry. I don’t have any of those. I had an ice storm, just me and who knows how many other million people in the U.S.After the ice, I had a bit of snow, then the temperature then dropped to 5F degrees, with a 40 mph wind. Suffice it to say that the dogs didn’t get much of a walk this morning. They didn’t seem to want one either, for which I am glad.
For me, in the cabin, weather extremes always seem more extreme or perhaps simply more immediate. When I get to work, everything there seems so normal and distanced from what’s going on up on the mountain. That’s always a bit of a shock to me.
Last night, the wind roared, the trees creaked, a few branches landed on the cabin’s roof or in my driveway. When I had to leave the cabin, I did so as quickly as possible, bolting out the doors so I didn’t let out any of my precious warmth. I worried about the pipes freezing—there’s something about a southwest wind hitting the corner of the cabin that sometimes causes me problems.
The cabin is warm, but sometimes I feel my hold on comfort is a fragile one, one that requires a lot of vigilance. I don’t mind that. In fact, I’m used to it, but there’s no doubt that living in the woods requires more from me during weather extremes than most people have to think about.
Staying connected to the natural world isn’t always all beauty and glory. It’s a bit about taking what comes and dealing with that. From my point of view, ignoring the reality of what’s going on in the natural world by never venturing out of our comfort lessens our ability to see life as it really is. To me life is too precious not to see as much of it as I can.
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6 comments:
Good Morning Carolyn, It's a whopping FIVE degrees here this morning. Brrrrr!!! I put out some extra goodies for my birdies today. Poor things!!!
I'd love some snow--but no ice.. Be careful when you get out-and-about.
I think you have the best of all worlds. You have the 'natural' world in and around your cabin.. THEN--you have that 'other' world at Roundtop--where people just don't understand the 'natural'...
You can go to the 'real world' --but then go home to the 'natural world.' That is SPECIAL.
Merry Christmas.
Hugs,
Betsy
No ice here in Minnesota, just COLD!!!
Stay warm out there.
Lynne: I guess you had a lot of snow then. I much prefer snow to ice, but once it starts getting into that multiple foot range, snow's adventage over ice dims a bit in my mind.
Betsy: One more cold day and then the weather begins climbing..and climbling..and climbing. Or so say the forecasters. The weather certainly has been active, to put it mildly.
Carolyn H.
I haven't been to our cabin in a few weeks. It is in the teens here, and I've been a little worried about our cabin's pipes too. I left the heat on, but low, but I left the water on, which would be the real disaster if the pipes do break!
Yikes, you got it worse than me. I only had another 4 inches of snow yesterday. Then around 2pm it clear up and was nice sunny day. Later the wind came thorugh but we didn't lose power for some reason.
Ok I'm at work, so have to end this.
Dana: i usually turn a light on in the sub-basement and keep it on overnight to help warm it up enough to keep the pipes open--but I discovered yesterday that the light isn't working, so that one is out for a while.
Cathy: the wind here was (and still is) brutal. I'll be happier when that ends, even if the temperatures stay cold.
Carolyn H.
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