Mid Winter Blahs

The sky was crystal clear and full of stars at 5:00 am, and the thermometer read - 12 degrees....

The days are finally becoming noticably longer. The sun was not yet up at 7:00, but the sky was slowly fading from dark azure blue to pale turquoise. At 8:01 the sun topped Mount Sentinel and splashed it's warm rays across the valley. As the sun beamed through the living room window and settled on my face, I curled up in the recliner to soak it up, like the proverbial sponge. We haven't been graced by its presence for almost two weeks and I welcomed the blast of vitamin D, By 10:15 am the sky was deceptively clear and sunny, although the temperature was still below zero.

I have to say that I am completely sick of winter. This has been the coldest winter we've had for many years. It began to snow on October 18th, and we haven't seen bare ground since. And while we haven't had it nearly as bad as the eastern US, for our little niche affectionately known as "Tropical Montana", it's a hard pill to swallow. For the past two days I've actually had the thermostat turned all the way up to 68, instead of the typical 65, mostly because I'm concerned about water pipes freezing. And if the checkbook doesn't appreciate the extra heat, the ever present bare feet certainly do! This is definately soup weather, and a big bowl of steaming hot, home made tomato soup really hit the spot tonight!

Serious cabin fever has begun to settle in - especially for the dogs, who haven't been on a good walk for a few months. It's just been too icy, and even at 13 years of age my husky is still strong enough to pull my feet right out from under me, especially with questionable footing. So they have to be content with their backyard games of tag and chase for another month or so. But before too long it will be just warm enough to get a some fresh air and exercise - we can hardly wait!

While the sun is welcome, the down side is that the old groundhog (or marmot, in our neck of the woods), will definately see it's shadow tomorrow, and nestle in for six more weeks of this miserable weather. Then again, as a friend pointed out, it might just be so bogged down in the snow that it won't even be able to burrow out to look for it's shadow. Sometimes another's point of view is so much better than our own!

This afternoon as the sun crept ever lower over Black Mountain, it cast it's last rays onto the Black Cat Range to the north, and the snow covered peaks glowed pink in the fading light.