February 16, 2007

Early morning chore

Early morning chore

On winter mornings, my husband gets up the earliest. He turns up the heat, puts the kettle on the stove for cocoa and tea, and begins making lunches for the kids to take to school. The first thing I do when I finally get out from under our down quilt is look out the window to see how much snow has fallen during the night. I love the way the landscape looks covered with a new layer of fresh white, glowing in the blue light of early morning. The wind blows the snow into graceful drifts, clean and untouched.

Of course, it doesn't stay like that. If more than six inches have fallen, we have to shovel the driveway, our boots plunging into those curving arcs of snow. The wind rattles the chimes that hang from the front porch and blows a mist of white snow across the banks that line the driveway. It's a nice way to wake up, really – to be outside in the muffled winter world, getting the blood circulating with a bit of exercise, breathing in the cold winter air that is filled with oxygen and moisture. Shaggy Hair Boy was in especially good spirits this morning as he and Boy in Black tossed snow up over their shoulders and onto the high banks: thanks to the weather, he and With-a-Why had another day off from school.

5 comments:

Ookami Snow said...

All I can think of when it snows is how much fun it is not going to be walking through it to get to classes...

I wish they would cancel classes every once in a while...

BerryBird said...

Hey, Shaggy Hair lucked out... he got a reprieve from his tests. I'm glad Boy in Black stayed the night. Aside from the good times, it must be nice to have a cartoon shoveler around at a time like this.

jo(e) said...

Berrybird: Oh, yeah, having teenagers who can shovel without ever getting tired is a huge help. Except, of course, they also eat a lot ....

Gannet Girl said...

Such a delightful description of what usually seems like such a tedious start to the day!

diana christine said...

the first thing i do when i awaken in the middle of the night is run to the window to see if we have any snow but alas, we rarely do.

what a treasure it is for me to enjoy winter wonderlands through your writing.