Bitterly Cold

What's it like in other parts of the country right now? Here it is just ridiculously cold. We've got brilliant sunshine that is so deceptive to the frigid conditions. The snow is so hard you can walk right on top of it and not sink in. It's 14F degrees this morning, but the wind chill makes it feel like 5. We've had temperatures like this for a week now! We've had so much wind for so long, I think it's been more than a year with unusually high winds. Are the windy places of the world even windier, or did we get some of their wind so that they are now milder? I'd love to know that.

My Korean art teacher believes that wind is caused by anger. Initially that may sound absurd, but high and low pressures have to originate somehow. I know I show my ignorance of science here, and I shouldn't go down paths where I have no knowledge. Anger causing wind is just such a powerful image. There is certainly no shortage of anger anywhere.

When we get to the last few really hot weeks of summer we call those days the "dog days." We need a name for these last few weeks of interminable winter. I don't think we can use the word "days" since winter is more about "nights." Someone please think of something! "The teetering on the edge of death nights of winter," "the way beyond the pale nights of winter," "the nights when hell just might freeze over," "the Boreal nights of winter"...etc.

So here's a picture of my garden, a deceptively peacful winter scene. It's hard to tell that the wind is blowing at least 25 mph and the temperature is only 14F!

I'm heading down to my studio to weave and hopefully not hear the wind howling.