the first big storm

                               



Long nights slumbers under the warmth of old quilts, early sunsets and cold feet, winter has settled in.  And looks like it plans to stay for while. 

There is a fire roaring in the stoker,  it does the job of taming the cold wind that sneaks  through the cracks in the old house.  Tonight is the first real storm of this winter,  blowing snow sets off the motion  activated lights and I have a beautiful view of the swirling snows.   Though I would prefer a  view of  green and growing springtime.   Storms can be beautiful until you have to find you vehicle and shovel it out of the snow, then clear the drive before you can drive into town for a jar of coffee.   I like that I usually don't have to go anywhere these days. Usually anyway.

it is unusually quiet, and as the snow fall and covers the Christmas lights the across the road neighbor has wrapped around his shrubbery, and those lights are beginning to look like glowing sherbet. Now that is a beautiful sight, on this still and moonless night.  Snow is

definitely less ugly when It happens before Christmas.

  Occasionally  there will be headlights, or the sound of a snowplow on the road,  but mainly it is quiet.  The windows cast rectangles of warm inviting light across the snowy ground.  I remember waiting for my Dad to come home from working second shift.  As the group of men with their lunch pails passed a house one man would leave the group, then the porch light would turn out, the group of men grew smaller until at last it was just my Dad and the neighbor.  This was the best time of the year to watch because  of the Christmas lights.

 In the here and now lights flicker,  threatening to plunge us into candlelight, and the wind howls even louder.  A candle is already lit, just because, one wouldn't want to fumble around in the dark.