The Time for Comfort

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:
it is the time for home. ~ Edith Sitwell

Winter's icy fingers have gripped southern Ontario by the snowballs rather suddenly and aggressively the past couple of days. Up until this week, the weather hasn't strayed too far below the freezing mark for very long, and many daytime highs have climbed well above seasonal norms. That came to an abrupt end on Friday when temperatures dropped from a near-balmy -5C (23F) to a painfully cold windchill factor of -40C (which is also -40F) expected for tonight.

Hopefully, this blog post finds you toasty warm and in the mood for a few winter photos.

The wagon rests in winter, the sleigh in summer, the horse never. ~ Yiddish Proverb

There are no shortages of barns, once you get north of Peterborough. This one was snapped from the car last year when my son and I were headed south to our old haunts. We've had much less snow than that. this year.

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Frost on my window catches the morning sun, rising to greet the town.

I read about a guy in Michigan this winter who was cruising along on his snow mobile. "Whoo hoo!" Didn't see a barbed wire fence. FOOM - cut his head right off. And I'll be honest with you, my first thought was... That's how I want to go. Having the time of your life, "Whoo hoo!" FOOM. I want the last thought in my head to be, "Hey, check out that headless snow mobile driver. He's got a jacket just like mine. ~ David Crowe

Another one from last year. As soon as the lake was frozen, snowmobiles zipped by semi-regularly.

Frost grows on the window glass, forming whorl patterns of lovely translucent geometry. Breathe on the glass, and you give frost more ammunition. Now it can build castles and cities and whole ice continents with your breath's vapor. In a few blinks you can almost see the winter fairies moving in ... but first, you hear the crackle of their wings. ~ Vera Nazarian

A recent frosty window. I played with the exposure settings a bit for this one.

See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. … How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

This was captured back in April of last year. The lake outside my door was still frozen but that didn't deter the dusk from accessorizing the sky with a cheerful, springlike pink feather.

One winter morning I awoke to see magnificent lines of frost stretching across my window panes. They seemed to rise with the sunshine and the bitter cold outside. They looked like little miracles that had been formed in the dark of the night. I watched them in sheer amazement and marveled that such beautiful forms could be born during such a winter-cold night. Yet, as I pondered them I thought of how life is so like that. We live our long, worn days in the shadows, in what often feels like barren, cold winter, so unaware of the miracles that are being created in our spirits. It takes the sudden daylight, some unexpected surprise of life, to cause our gaze to look upon a simple, stunning growth that has happened quietly inside us. Like frost designs on a winter window, they bring us beyond life's fragmentation and remind us that we are not nearly as lost as we thought we were, that all the time we thought we were dead inside, beautiful things were being born in us. ~ Joyce Rupp

You had to know that with me, if there's one frosty windowpane image, there's going to be several. This kind of looks like a night sky behind it but it was taken mid-afternoon.

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven. ~ Yiddish Proverb

During the long, cold months of winter, we often have a tendency to turn toward comfort foods. In December, I had the honour of being included among a wonderful group of women friends for the making of Christmas pierogies. Experienced hands readied the dough on a breadboard which has seen a few generations of food preparation.

She rolled up and down, back and forth.

A sprinkling of flour dusted on a sticking place,

and the dough stretched and gave.

~Julia Meylor Simpson

Each ball of dough yielded quite a bit of rolled out real estate.

Never, never rest contented with any circle of ideas, but always be certain that a wider one is still possible. ~ Pearl Bailey

We used a simple glass to cut the circles from the dough.

Preparing food is one of life's great joys, but a lot of times, parents ask their kids if they want to cook with them and then tell them to go peel a bag of potatoes. That's not cooking - that's working! ~ Guy Fieri

The potato and cheese mixture was ready and waiting for helpers to grab those spoons to start filling these scrumptious treats.

Pierogi

noun, plural pierogi, pierogies. Eastern European Cookery.

1. a small dough envelope filled with mashed potato, meat, cheese, or vegetables, crimped to seal the edge and then boiled or fried, typically served with sour cream or onions.

And fill them, we did – several dozens of them. There were also some previously-made pierogies which we had as part of our lunch. All in all a lovely day with lovely people.

It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.

~ John Burroughs 

I'll leave you with one final frosty window shot from this very morning (Saturday).

More photos coming up before too long.