I love the Cold! It brings warmth to my heart!
Giuseppe and I enjoying a snowstorm in the Skagit lowlands.
Well, here we go again with another sub-freezing blast for Western Washington. I love it! Why you ask as many of my fellow Northwesterners are hunkered down in their toasty homes? Nostalgia for one. While I have been living in Western Washington for 24 years now, I still miss my native New England from time to time. I loved New Hampshire and Vermont winters! Love the snow-love the dark blue skies-the fiery red sunsets and cool crisp air. Love the silhouettes of the birches and maples against the winter skies too. I loved hiking, skiing and snowshoeing in those cold, cold days!
So when the thermometer plummets here-it usually means no rain and lots of cool crisp air-deep blue skies and fire red sunsets. I love running around Skagit County which looks remarkably like New England in places and watching rows of swans fly overhead or start their long descent to oxbow ponds upon the flood plain. It’s surrealistic, especially against the outlines of big mountains in the dusky daylight. I love coming inside after a run to sip hot chocolate by a fireplace and listen to Christmas music. It all brings back such great and warm memories of my younger years in New Hampshire-and sets new memories of my rare-but-cherished cold days in Western Washington. In the 1990s the winters were pretty mild here. But within the last decade we have had many more cold days and longer streaks of them. I like that-beats the rain, gray and perpetual dreariness any day! I can’t wait to go out and get another run in. How about you? Love the cold or long for the rain?
