Advent Day 4

Today's morning sabbath walk was over at Ridge Hill Reservation.  I did a lot of rehab there after my back surgery.  We--the dog and I--got there early while it was still cold.  I wanted to get her used to sitting in the car to get to a hike.  It is a small skill but an important one if you are going to do much hanging out with me.  This probably goes for humans as well.

Anyway, that was all the "training" I could really get done on our walk.  You cannot reason with a puppy who is encountering snow for the first time.  Yep, we had a light flurry for about 90 minutes.  Nothing stuck but it was exciting both for the dog and for me.  It is Advent.  Winter is coming.  I am looking for it.  Hopefully it shows up soon.

No really...it is snowing!

Peak Snow Crew hijinx.

There is a lot that I hate about winter. The dark gets to me.  So does the general inconvenience.  However, My animal brain is keyed to its arrival.  There is a deep part of me that wants to get on with it.  There is another part that worries about how warm our cold-season has become.  Yes, I am from Maine, which has different--colder and snowier--habits.  Also, old people always think the snow was better when they were young. Yet I do believe that twenty years ago--when we moved to Massachusetts--there was more snow and more cold here than there is now.  The pictures of my children--now much older--featured quite a bit of snow.  We would go sledding on a hill near here.  We would build snow-people.  The youth group shoveled out the church regularly. It was normal and lovely.

​These days around here, it usually shows up in one massive three-day snowstorm in the spring.  That strangeness gets to you.  It contributes to my eco-anxiety in a big way.

---

There will be more on eco-anxiety later, I am sure. Right now, though, I have to get back to work.  so I am leaving you with a few pics of today's largely-invisible suburban snow event, a couple of the old youth group "Snow Crew" in action, and a link to this video of Allison and I hiking during the church winter retreat in Hew Hampshire.  That is the sort of thing I am prepping the dog for.  We will find winter...even if it no longer comes to us.

---