In May 2011, after four years of life on McNutt's Island, we moved to Montreal. This blog remains, though, as a (sort of) daily record of our time on the island, and a winding path for anyone who would like to meander about among its magical places. For additional perspectives and insights I recommend Greg's book, Island Year: Finding Nova Scotia (2010), and my Bowl of Light (2012). I'll continue to post once in a while. If you do want to read this blog, one option would be to begin at the beginning of it (which is, as we all know, in blog-world, at the end), and read forward, concluding with the most recent entry. It's a journal, really, so it does makes more sense if you read it that way. But, you know, read it any way you like.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Weather report

The morning snow has turned into ice, and teeters between icy rain and rainy ice while the temperature keeps falling.  The spruce are weighted down with wet snow.  They sway in ominous slow motion, from top to bottom, to the slow-dance music of a cold northeasterly wind. They look as if they could topple over from the effort of remaining vertical, continuing to dance beneath their steadily increasing burden. 

The birches wave only their branches and not their trunks. The waving branches are glazed with ice.  They are gently waving now, but they could just as easily break off if their ice covering gets thicker and the wind picks up. Both the spruce and the birch are strangely beautiful, transformed by winter's gifts.  The trees have gravitas today, and quietly dance as the sky grows dark.  

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