TreeTopViews

It may be a Holiday for some. It may be a holy day for some. It may be deeply spiritual for some, while for others it’s a lucky day off from work. It might be a lonely day for some and others may be surrounded by loved ones and friends. You got your Scrooges and your Tiny Tims. You got your warm and comfy here in the good old USA and you got your soldier where he or she shouldn’t be according to my lights. For some the day itself is questioned while others are completely without question. T’is the season for many. That includes a lot. I believe I have occupied each of these positions at one time or another. I believe in flexibility. Even that makes me wince.
May you find quiet, joy, a fulness of heart – whatever the season is to you. Love.

Jerry Henderson

I hope those people in Copenhagen don’t do anything too quickly to cool the earth down. It isn’t immediately apparent here that there is anything like global warming going on except in textbooks and on the lecture circuit. It’s colder than a well digger’s drill bit in Idaho.

It does seem a bit early in the season for the morning temperatures to dip below the zero point. I can remember living up in Central Maine a number of years ago when we had sustained temperatures in the minus 30 region one Christmas Day. That was unusual and memorable. Nothing moved, and it it attempted to move it made funny and unusual noises.

I had a friend who was running an automobile repair shop at the time in a small town nearby and he told me this story. He did not work on Sunday. This was an inviolate rule of his. On this particular Sunday morning with temperatures in the minus 30 neighborhood his phone rang. It was the classic little old lady who was a regular customer calling to say that her ancient Datsun would not start and she had to go to church – could he come over and get it started for her.

In his gravelled cigarette enhanced voice, as kindly as he could be under the circumstances, he told her that it was too cold to be out even for church and that his own car also would not start, so he would not be able to come out and help her. Anyway, he added, I am closed on Sundays. The woman was quite upset and warned him that God would not be pleased. His reply was something like, maybe, since the weather is God’s business, she could bring this issue to his attention. I am sure – at least I want to be sure of this – that that little old lady was secretly pleased not to be out freezing her butt off but rather sitting by the fire as i am doing, wondering if it is time to feed another stick to the coals to keep the heat up in the comfort zone.

I need to go into town myself this morning. I’ll wait until the temperature rises a point or two before I venture out. I have a package to mail and a birthday present to pick up. None of this would be happening at 30 below I can guarantee. Weather Bug says it is 18? while my gauge reads an even zero. I think their instrument is on a sunny hill about four miles from here while mine is in the shade on the north side of this house under a ledge that is covered in icy snow and pine trees. We seem to have our own little micro weather system here that always seems to be colder than the published readings.

That’s the way it is here in Maine three days before the beginning of winter.

Be well and stay tuned.

I’m Jerry Henderson

Winterland, 2009 – 2010, is a living album that will develop as time goes by. The first photo is a four shot panorama taken at the back boundry of our little plot.  Be on the alert for other photos to be added to this album.

Are you being alert?

This is a photograph taken looking a few degrees west of south at 2:30 PM on December 8, 2009 at Pownal, ME. We are about two hours south of the 45th parallel which is half way between the equator and the north pole. I’m not complaining, you understand, but I continually marvel at the seasonal shifts and varying perspectives offered to the casual observer living at this latitude. It is easy, judging by this, how the sun would simply disappear at and above the arctic circle.

I’m happy for those folk living there. They don’t move away, so there must be some special benefit found in such an environment. I’d go bloody bananas.

The slanting light so early in the day offers a texturing of the landscape unlike at any other time of the year. The sun seems to set in a south southwesterly direction. Soon light will return and the process will be repeated. It’s comforting in a way to see these “predictable” natural cycles. So much in life is unpredictable.

I filled up all the inside wood bins today. Come on North Wind and blow your best.

On second thought, second best will do for now.

I’m Jerry Henderson