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Heading Into Winter in Search of Green
I live in a state where it’s always green, so for me this is a metaphor. I wonder from all of you who reside in real winter climates, how do you get through the months with no leaves on the trees? As we face a new political reality, I’m in search of respite.
La Mortella Garden by Guy Yanai
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I live in the Midwest, so I get all four seasons. I think you have to learn to see the beauty in winter. It’s easier with the pretty snow on all the trees. It’s harder to see the beauty in the grey skies and dull brown trees. I think it’s a choice to see the beauty that is always present.
I’m going to try and take in your words of wisdom Dee.
Well we have a lot of pine trees… so they still have leaves. Well, needles. But those are their leaves. I’m not here to judge.
Love it!
Like Dee, I live in the Midwest and have found beauty in all the seasons. From my back bedroom window, which faces west, the winter brings a beautiful twilight scene: the gradation of color serving as a backdrop to stripped-bare deciduous trees. Honestly, the silhouette of black limbs and branches against the fading light is one of my favorite views. I love the spare beauty of it. Plus, in winter there’s less moisture in the atmosphere, so the picture is sharper.
Other winter joys–low lights and candles in my home. This is such a nesting (and cooking!) time of year, even after the holiday season. Braises and stews and breads, the sorts of things I don’t cook when the weather is too warm. Then the first few times it flurries–still excites me. And the feeling of walking into a warm home from the bitterly cold outside (somehow the seasonal inverse–stepping into air conditioning from the sweltering outdoors–doesn’t do a thing for me).
That said, by February I’m usually ready for some warmth! Much like I look forward to the cooler temperatures by the end of August.
Maybe California has given me false expectations about a perennially green world.
I, too, live in the Midwest (maybe we’re neighbours??) and also enjoy winter cooking projects. My favourite part of winter is definitely NOT the cold, but the truly spectacular sunsets — so vivid! so crisp! so cold-looking, and yet so alive — resulting from ice crystals in the atmosphere.
We’re entering a chilly spell here in L.A. (58 degrees right now) and I’ve been thinking about winter cooking projects too. This weekend, I’m going to make a pot of pasta e fagioli. What’s on your list?