Winter has come. No snow has fallen on the “homestead,” no frosts or freezes that linger more than an hour past daylight, but it won’t be long. The air has smelled of snow many days in the past week, even though the weather forecast makes no mention of it. Tomorrow we abandon Daylight Saving Time, a truly useless conceit in Alaska’s latitudes (see Stop Messing Around with Time!). I feel ready, even eager to turn inward, to settle in for winter.
I’ve been enjoying the morning ritual of cleaning the wood stove glass, laying and starting a fire (see Cleaning Woodstove Glass: How and Why). I find myself settling down for at least a few moments to quietly contemplate the growing flames before turning to other tasks. I quickly packed away our Halloween decorations, the better to enjoy a week or so before preparing for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season hard on its far side. To welcome Winter itself. Continue reading