My Puzzle Picture Life

Disclaimer #1: This is not intended to be a profound post.

Disclaimer #2: I am from California and spent most of my life there, so know that whatever I say about winter here, the cold still feels very...cold.

 

It's mid-November and it really feels like winter is just around the corner, even though the calendar says it doesn't start for over a month.

It looks like winter, too.  The sun's angles (when the sun is indeed shining) are low, soft amber-gold instead of yellow, and the morning shadows are long.

The vast majority of the trees are bare now, brown skeletons against the sky.  The sky itself is different, too - almost completely devoid of any blue tint.  Pale sky blends into snow-covered roofs and snow-covered ground.

I'd call it bleak, but it's not truly bleak when the sun is out.  There's the tiniest bit of warmth in the landscape, kind of like a thin smile which is better than no smile at all.

It reminds me, somehow, of my mom's favorites puzzles.  Jane Wooster Scott and Charles Wysocki paint all sorts of town scenes in folksy, Americana style.  When I was younger, the winter ones seemed like just imaginings with no connection to the mild California world I was living in.  Where were there towns that looked like that?

Perhaps that's why - even though I'm not fond of the sub-freezing temperatures - I find myself captivated when this season rolls around.  Snow flakes falling under the glow of the street lights?  The sound of snow whooshing through the trees?  A thousand flakes sparkling like diamonds in the sun?  Snow crunching under my shoes?  Amber light pouring in my windows after sunrise?  It all feels a bit magical, unreal.

But I like it immensely.

(Well, for a while, at least.)