Lots of snow here in New England. So far, about a foot has fallen.
Usually, I’d be quite upset. Snow is fun and beautiful to look at but driving in it is awful. Shoveling is hazardous to your health.
Today, however, I’m celebrating the return of winter. I’m grateful it’s no longer eerily warm. Fifty degrees in January was crazy.
I know it won’t last. Meteorologists are saying it will be near fifty again by the end of the month. But for today, it’s really cold. And I’m happy about that.
Theoretically, Spring began on March 20th here in Connecticut. But March did not go out like a lamb as promised. In fact, we’ve had a couple of Spring snow storms. I am so tired of cold weather.
You may be wondering how global WARMING can cause colder weather. This Forbes article might offer some insight. But what I know from observation is that the ice cap is melting, average temperatures are on the rise, and our weather is changing. According to EDF (the Environmental Defense Fund), heat waves are hotter, cold is colder, storms surges are fiercer.
We used to have 4 seasons. Spring was my jam! Moderate temperature, warm rains…but it is as likely to be cool as the summer is likely to be crazy hot. Although it may be too late to turn global warming around completely, we have to give it a try.
Green America offers some ideas about what we—you and I—can do about global warming. Ideas include
We can stop wasting food. Buy what you need. Eat what you prepare. Donate extra to food banks and shelters.
Eat less meat. I don’t know about the whole gassy cow rumor, but it takes a lot to raise the animals we eat—land, water, food. According to Bloomberg, livestock consumes most of the corn and soy grown. Our collective footprint would be less if we raised fewer animals to eat.
Use clean energy. Anything you can do to move away from fossil fuel will help.
Insulate our homes and offices better.
Recycle. Buy less. When we recycle and/or reduce our consumption, less junk ends up in landfills.
I understand if it doesn’t sound like much. But remember, individual drops of rain overflow rivers. If each person takes a few easy steps, all of us, future generations, and the one and our one and only Earth may survive.
A few pictures of today’s snow.
I don’t consider myself to be a winter person. The reason is simple: I don’t like being cold. I feel sad, however, when it doesn’t produce a classic colossal snow.
When I was a child, a huge snow storm meant home from school with mom. She made cookies and hot chocolate of course (what’s a snow day without them!), but she also made her special snow ice cream.
You heard me. Snow ice cream. My mom’s snow ice cream was the yummiest treat ever, some combination of sugar, cream, and condensed milk. Go ahead, look it up. You’ll find a few different recipes. None of them will be mom’s. If you want to try it, I have one caution—today’s snow is nowhere near as clean as the snow of my youth. Be careful.
While I can’t reproduce the ice cream, whenever it snows my partner and I grab the hot chocolate and watch it come down. Sometimes, like today, we bundle up and head outside. It wasn’t a lot of snow, three inches, maybe. We prefer at least six. In fact, the more snow the better—which you’d find hilarious if you knew the magnitude of our back and knee problems. But it brings us joy. That’s what snow is.
Joyous.
Take good care.
I know many people who spend a great deal of time and money on their lawns and flower beds. I’ve never been so fortunate to have either tons of cash or talent in that area. Consequently, my partner and I have always had a “grow if you want to” sort of approach.
It works for us. We plant from time to time, but often end up with beautiful flowers in giant pots. We mow, but not as often as other people in our neighborhood. The wild look seems to suit us, and well, when our neighbors have killed their grass from too much mowing in hot weather, our lawn flourishes. Mostly. When it wants to.
As you can see in the pictures, we keep as many leaves as possible on the lawn and in the flower beds. It works for forests, right? No one rakes them. Past the big tree is a downward incline—much of our property is down the hill. We don’t do anything with that except occasionally get rid of the poison ivy or this nasty invasive vine that wants to have its way with our trees and bushes. But hill is lush and green, with lots of bunnies and squirrels and even foxes.
Okay, fine. It’s messy. Strange. Uneven. Wild. But gosh. It’s so beautiful.
The view from our balcony. Snow, Christmas lights, overcast sky.
Yesterday was the beginning of Spring Break. Normally we try to take at least a short vacation. This year we are staying close to home because I am afraid of leaving Chloe alone. She’s our brindle terrier mix, and she runs the house. She’s 15 years old and doesn’t feel well much of the time. She also seems to be getting separation anxiety, as we have to be in her sight at all times or she whines in distress. Our poor baby girl.
It’s fun to look back at some of our trips. Others, not so much. A few years ago, we had reservations at Trappe Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. We looked forward to sitting in the nice warm lodge and watching the snow. We would nap, drink tea and hot chocolate, eat from their wonderful menu. We would relax. At home, meteorologists predicted a dusting.
They were wrong.
The second evening of our vacation, our sitter called to ask if any of our neighbors might be able to feed and walk our dogs. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to get out to make her visits with him. Turns out the prediction of snow had changed drastically, and the governor would be closing the roads over heavy snow. I panicked. All of our neighbors are elderly and none of them able to care for our dogs. Our only option was to immediately return home. We hurriedly packed and talked with hotel staff. We were booked for the week. Fortunately, the manager was kind and didn’t ask us to pay for the remainder of the week, despite the fact that she was entitled to do so.
As we drove through the night, not a single snowflake fell. We finally found an all-night grocery store where we bought a large supply of junk food and soda to sustain us on the trip. Since we had been on the go since early morning, we struggled to stay awake and alert.
We made it to Hartford as the sun rose. Snow started falling as we pulled into the driveway. We unpacked and quickly checked food supplies since we had not shopped before leaving.
Finally satisfied that we didn’t need any supplies, our dogs were in good shape, and we were okay, too, we went to sleep. It was still snowing when we woke, and the accumulation was deep. I was able to dig a short path from our back door to allow the dogs out. They really were not happy—the snow was taller then each of them!
It snowed for 2 more days. The neighborhood was so quiet and peaceful. We kept some of the path clear for the dogs by using a long shovel we kept inside for that purpose, but we weren’t able to open the doors wide enough for us to leave. Didn’t matter; the city didn’t plow our road for three days.
The takeaway is simple. No more long trips over spring break. Fine by me; it’s snowing again today.
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