"Winter then it its early and clear stages,
was a purifying engine that ran unhindered over city and country,
alerting the stars to sparkle violently and shower their silver light
into the arms of bare upreaching trees."
-- Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale
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| The view from my kitchen window 1-8-14 |
"Life moves pretty fast.
If you don't stop and look around once in a while,
you could miss it."
-- Ferris, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The winter landscape has been harsh, cold and bleak lately.
Talking about the winter weather has grown boring and mundane.
Dealing with it has grown even boring-er and more mundane-er.
I was elbows deep in a ho-hum kitchen sinkful of sudsy water, doing the mundane task of washing boring old lunch dishes, when I glanced up and out.
It was early afternoon, but a half-moon had already settled in the cloudless blue sky. The sun was reflecting off the ice coating the frozen treetops so that they glittered like jewels, like diamonds.
I left the dishes in the sink, dried my hands and bundled up -- boots, coat, hat, gloves, hood. I grabbed my camera and stomped through the heavily crusted snow of the backyard knowing I had to work fast because A.) it was -4 degrees with a -20 windchill, and B.) the sky is a fickle and elusive thing. Like rainbows and sunsets, the perfect light will leave as quickly as it came.
I got a few shots before my fingers went numb. None of them do the scene justice. But I tried.
I felt lucky, like I'd seen something private, meant just for me and the moon. It was like spotting a rare bird in the forest for just a moment before it flits away. While the rest of the world had its backs turned toward the sky, hunched against the brutal wind, giving Winter the finger, I happened to look up and Winter showed me a glimpse of her other, prettier side.
Winter wasn't the boring, harsh, cold bitch everyone was making her out to be.
In that moment, in that light, all done up in sparkles, she looked better than good. She was perfectly lovely.
