BEYOND COLD

-9 Degrees F.

When the  morning temperature is -9 degrees just as it was yesterday and the day before yesterday, it becomes rather strange. The air is dry, the snow squeaks if you dare step out on it.
 It is ridiculously cold.

Since Christmas we have been living in this Arctic blast of sub zero temperatures.

And....there has been snow and ice to add to the mix. This deep freeze is not ending anytime soon.
We are living in an inhospitable world of gray and white.

If I can say anything positive about this, the snow cover is like a blanket and is beneficial for the garden to help protect it against these temperatures. 

Ahhhhh! Some color! Clementines are a must this time of year for Vitamin C and for their vibrant color to help those winter doldrums of the colorless environment outside our windows.

James has a cure for the winter blues....

A  glass of wine as a warm fire blazes. Although,
he admits to being tired of having to deal with cord wood, he loves the romance of a fire burning in our fireplace.
In the kitchen there is an Amatriciana sauce simmering and a duck breast roasting in the oven.
Winter cooking aromas fill the house.  All morning a chicken stock was becoming the basis of a soup for the week. This weather demands soup.

We did not leave the house today except to bring in wood.
We both work in our studios in the daylight hours, which are shortened by the winter season.
I have been studying Italian during the dusk hours hoping that my efforts will lead to longer conversations.

No end in sight for this cold.
Neither James nor I can remember a time when the world we live in here in New England was so frozen for so long. Climate change, yes.

As the full moon rises above our tundra we hope that the New Year 2018 will not only bring us a thaw, but on a global scale, civility, brotherhood, peace and respect for one another and the planet we all live on.