Wednesday was my birthday. I had a nice day. My children skyped or telephoned to wish me a happy birthday. I got cards and lots of birthday wishes on facebook. The kids at school found out it was my birthday and many of them wished me a happy birthday too. In the evening the Shilligs came for dinner and afterward, angel food cake and strawberries. I received some very nice gifts. So I’m a year older and all I can say about growing older is that it’s better than the alternative – and that’s it.
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| My birthday with angel food cake and strawberries. |
On Thursday the first of my seed orders arrived in the mail. Another came on Friday, and yet another on Saturday. It’s exciting to open packages with seeds inside. I look at those little packets of seeds and the magic overwhelms me. So much potential in such tiny bits of matter.
Josiah left on Wednesday for Regional Band competition. He was there the rest of the week. He placed tenth in auditions and only the top two go on to the state competition. This year Regionals were held in Fort LeBoeuf, over near Erie. We drove over on Saturday to attend the concert and bring him home. The concert was excellent. The weather, as usual, was terrible. The drive to and from was a nightmare with white outs and accidents all along the way. We averaged about 35 MPH. We considered staying the night in Erie, but decided to brave it and come home. We didn’t get home until 9:30.
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| Our drive to and from Erie on Saturday. |
All week the weather was snowy. School was canceled again on Monday. That’s two weeks in a row they’ve had to cancel school on Monday. On Thursday the temperature began to drop and the wind began to blow. By Friday morning the wind chill was at -25 and they canceled school on Friday.
It’s sunny this morning, but it doesn’t make much difference – the temperature is -18 and the wind chill is -35. We were notified yesterday that church is canceled today for the entire Palmyra Stake.
It seems strange to be home on a Sunday morning with nothing to do. We slept in. I stepped out into the bitter cold to fill the bird feeders then back in the warmth of the kitchen I spent some time watching the birds. I don’t know how they can live in such frigid, windy conditions, but they seem oblivious to it. There are dozens of them jostling at the feeders. I even heard some of them singing.
I have to begrudgingly admit that there is a special beauty when it gets this cold. The air is too cold to hold any moisture and seems especially clear. Distant details of the landscape seem crisply focused. The snow when it is this cold is dry and powdery. It feels like cornstarch and makes that gritchy, squeaky noise like cornstarch when you walk on it. When the slightest breeze blows, the dry snow swirls into intricate drifts that shift and move slowly across the yard. These cold, cold temperatures make the trees pop and their joints creak and groan when the wind moves them. I know how they feel.
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| This bitterly cold morning. |
Most of the windows in our house have double panes and are insulated and frost-free, but out on the back porch and in the woodshed the windows are single paned and always dirty and that makes for amazing frost patterns. In the mornings when I go out to fill the bird feeders I always take a moment to admire the frost on the woodshed windows. The patterns are so delicate and beautiful and every day they are different.
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| Frost on the woodshed window this morning. |
Everyone is awake now and I think we’ll have brunch in a bit. I’m thinking pancakes “Howe Style” with a runny-yolked fried egg sliced on top. After that I think we’ll sit around the wood stove and read the scriptures together for a while. Maybe we’ll play some games later. We’re not going outside if we can help it. We’ll have to get wood from the porch now and then. And Josiah will have to go down to the barn later to do the chores. I think we’re still going to Shillig’s house tonight for our Sabbath Soiree, but we’re going to drive the short distance. And it won’t surprise me if we get a phone call canceling school tomorrow.
