On winter mornings, the house is still dark and cold when the alarm clock rings. Spouse wakes up the kids, or at least tries to wake them up by calling their names in a series that gets more and more urgent, and then goes to the kitchen to put water on the stove for cocoa and tea. I'll drag myself out of the warm bed and stumble downstairs, pretending to be awake and cheerful, but not fooling anyone. Spouse has long been in charge of getting everyone up and out of the house in the morning; I am not to be relied upon at that hour of the day.
Always, one of the cats is at the back door, wanting to come in or go out. When I slide open the big glass door, the fresh cold air will hit my face and breeze right through my cotton shirt, waking me up, no matter how tired I am. Later in the day, sunlight will make the snow sparkle, and sunlight will fill my living room, creating patches of warmth for humans and cats. But early in the morning, the outside world glows with blue light, and the woods behind my house are a dark silhouette.
17 comments:
I want a backyard like that ... yes, with the snow (as long as I don't have to drive to work in it).
Wow. That's a lot of snow you have there.
And, your partner makes you cocoa in the mornings? Lucky lucky you!
Wow, how peaceful and beautiful--and nice to watch from INSIDE where you are toasty.
I'm not a morning person, but I am a cocoa person.
Oh, jo(e), this makes me miss rural Washington where I grew up. We used to get this much snow, on occasion. Not every year, but some times. Now that I'm exclusively a city girl, I don't wake up to it. Global warming doesn't help, either.
Thanks for posting it.
I look out every morning, too, maybe thinking the snow went away in the night. Our picnic table looks like the one in your picture.
But I enjoy being the one awake in the morning; each of the kids gets up at a very different time so they come through the kitchen and spend a few minutes with me. I put on boots and a coat and go out and get the freezing cold newspaper and see our driveway needing shoveling.
One of the reasons my husband ended up being in charge of the morning routine is because for years and years, my role in the morning was to nurse a baby. Lying in bed breastfeeding is the one thing I can manage in the early morning.
My youngest son still likes to snuggle on my lap every morning ....
I adore when the snow is all sparkly, from sunlight or moonlight or even artificial light-- headlights, what have you. It makes it all worthwhile, even for the most white-knuckled snow driver in The History of The Universe (me.) It even eases the teeth-gritting I do while driving.
This post reminds me of an experience I had in San Francisco of all places. I was walking along Powell Street and passed an oil painting in the window of Richard Thomas Galleries. I must have stopped ans stared at the painting for at least 10 minutes and I even made a point to go back and look at it before my trip was over.
The painting perfectly captured the mystic magic in that moment of dusk in the winter when the world is cast in blue and the light from inside the homes is a gorgeous, contrasting warm glow. I immediately put the artist's name, Alexei Butirskiy in my palm pilot so that maybe someday I could buy one. The link above is to some of his images...it is important to remember that they are ALL oil paintings. My favorites are down towards the bottom of the page.
Is your name part of spouse's morning littany of names?
Sheepish: Sadly, yes. I have a very difficult time waking up to an alarm clock. Boy in Black is the worst, though. Someone has to kick him a few times before he will even move.
Girl: Thanks for the link. I wish I had a good enough camera to capture what my house looks like in the evening, when I am outside shovelling snow and warm light is spilling from the windows.
Another thing we have in common, Jo(e). I am unable to wake up in the mornings, especially to an alarm clock. When Josh is not rushed in the mornings, he wakes me up with kisses, but many times it is increasing levels of urgency in his tone. Perhaps I will start telling him now that when we have kids, he does the mornings.
Halloweenlover: Oh, yeah, get the idea into his head now.
I get morning kisses only on Saturdays and Sundays. On weekdays, the first school bus arrives at my house just a little after 7 a.m. so there is little time for any sort of cuddling ....
I love that blue light of early morning. It's making me cold to think about it, but I do love morning light in all its variations. (If only I didn't have to wake up early to see it!)
first time visitor. nice tranquil colors you have for a template. liked the post too.
Jo(e),
The yearning this picture evokes in me is almost physically painful. I grew up in western Pennsylvania, and your picture reminds me so much of the light there at this time of year. The snow on the picnic table brought back the taste and smell of snow to me. I love where I live for its summers, but god, how I miss snow!
Thank you for the memories you've evoked. Thanks also for writing your blog. The love in it is wonderfully warming.
Oh, how I miss this early-morning blue snow look! Sigh... early morning rain and wet trees, grass, and gray sky really doesn't cut it.
I'm with NK on this. It's my first winter on the west coast, and that picture just made me ache with homesickness. (Five more days until I'm in that kind of snow.)
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