Yesterday I told him, “Feels like snow.”  Which I have always believed to be a Canadian phrase, specifically a Saskatchewanian phrase.  Is it?  Do you say it too?  Robert also uses this phrase and I cannot tell if he has always said it or if it’s one of those cross over phrases we use between the two of us and we simply cannot recall the origin of it or who actually said it first and brainwashed the other into repeating it.  We brainwash each other all the time.  I guess it’s true that when you love someone long enough you begin to become them.  Anyway, I told him, “Feels like snow.”  And he said it back at me and I felt the temperatures dropping and the wind growing mean and I had to let our big diesel truck warm up longer than I usually let it warm up because it felt a little creaky and stiff and it’s very good for diesel engines to have luxurious wake-ups.  Big trucks are quite like me in that regard.

This morning, I woke up rather early, looked out the windows and sure enough, there was snow!  I rose, penned a couple of letters to far away friends in the blue light of dawn, delighted in the whistle of the kettle on the stove top, watched the snow fall on my cow skull collection outside the big kitchen window, ate a little breakfast and then went out to ramble in it all — to tumble around in the weather like a big, round, lonesome weed.  It was beautiful, stark, stormy and it felt awfully fresh to have my feathers backcombed by the wind.  Wintertime is my happy place.

Items of note:

I watched the 2011 version of Great Expectations this week.  Lord have mercy.  It is beautiful.  Gillian Anderson is perfectly disturbing as Miss Havisham.  I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

On the bedstand:  Seven Gothic Tales, Gift From The Sea, Wildwood, The Language of Flowers, All-American Poem, and I found a clearance copy of Lebovitz’s Pilgrimage while in the city this week!  It’s gorgeous!

Playing in the studio:  Mack & Ryan (naturally), Brooke Waggoner, The Goldberg Variations and The White Buffalo.

Now I must skedaddle.  I’m halfway through an enormous enameling project I hope to finish up next week.  Hope you are all well and cozy on this fine weekend!