Winter Darkness!

       Relatives in Norway light candles when the long winter dark comes. Perhaps that's where Joanne got her love of candles. In one of the closets in the condo there are shelves filled with candles that she left behind. In the condo I, too, would light candles. There aren't many candles here in The Little House so I make do with electric lights...many LEDs which I light with less guilt. Tonight there is a low overcast sky so dark came particularly early.  In three weeks as "the days begin to lengthen the cold begins to strengthen." Seasonal Affective Disorder is not a problem for me but I do look forward to more daylight. 

     Climate change has given a warm autumn but I'm ready to brave the cold as much as it is not be preferred state. Our early snow is almost all gone except for some drifts that the wind piled. With quiet nights many of the ponds are now frozen. In the last two day's hunting treks I've seen more deer than pheasants.  Huge flocks of snow geese are looking for kernels in harvested corn fields. They rest at night in the safety of Lake Sinai which has yet to freeze. A couple of mourning doves have refused to migrate and yesterday the lighted on the ice of my frozen pond. Muskrats have built their winter houses and can often been seen sitting on the ice. Winter is edging slowly in making me think of Frost's poem.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

BY ROBERT FROST

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,  

And miles to go before I sleep.

Takk  for alt,

Al