Even in these tightening lanes, the seasons cycle around and around

[sovay]

I have been terrifically wiped out by this set of holidays. The major accomplishment of Boxing Day was taking a walk and a couple of pictures, which I did shortly before sunset. I was very taken with the intertwining of the ember-bright berries and the fruits with their frost-feathers which I imagine would have been even more striking against snow. Both were tangled through the chain-link of a yard.



I believe the feathery vine to be old man's beard, although I am making this identification almost strictly from the illustration in Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Seasons (1988). I can't tell if the red fruits are winterberries or something else seasonally apropos and unwise to eat.



They look like the X-rays of snakes.

This afternoon is Boxing Day Observed, meaning the presence of my niece and my brother. I did not appreciate the prompt return of the contractors at an hour when I had already been unable to sleep all night.

Comments

[pameladean]

Lydy is out of town, so she's good. David and I have both shovelled the front, and so far nobody has reported us to the city, so I guess we did an adequate job. David also cleared the area around the trash carts before the city workers came to empty them. Cameron did the driveway today. This leaves the back path through the yard to the garage, but she'll get that tomorrow when there's a thaw. I'll probably try to chop up the packed snow in front. It was so light that anyone walking by squashed it right down.

We didn't have an inordinate amount of snow for Minnesota, though it was a bit enthusiastic for December. But it divided itself up into too many episodes that each required immediate attention.

That said, I figure that if I'm not in Buffalo I'm plenty lucky.

P.

[sovay]

That said, I figure that if I'm not in Buffalo I'm plenty lucky.

We have friends in Buffalo; they are under seven feet of snow, but otherwise safe. I am glad you are able to deal with and hope you do not have to deal immediately with any more enthusiastic episodes of your own.

[pameladean]

I'm glad your friends are safe; may they remain so.

We are looking at an ambiguous storm building, where the track is uncertain so that the exact form the abundant precipitation will take is also uncertain. It is hard to even know what to hope for. But at least it doesn't sound as if sub-zero temperatures will be involved. The worse combination is wet snow or rain followed, before one can shovel anything, by an immense drop in temperature. I call it rude.

P.