Some like it hot, some like it cold.

Yesterday was warm and wildly windy with dark clouds hanging off in the distant northern sky. By sunset the bank of darkness moved in close, and rain came down gently, growing louder with thunder, gusting winds and the excitement of a front moving through. Through the night the temperatures continued to drop until I finally shut the window, and gave in to the cold.

I am usually up before the sun making my cup of sturdy irish tea ( Barry's Select for those inquiring minds) and preparing to meet the day. This day started with a flash of fire in the eastern horizon, as the sun rose into a frigid atmosphere. I grabbed my camera and stepped out into the chilly morning looking out to the swaying palms, the swirling canal, the dawning sky lightening and then bleeding color through purple clouds.One snap, no touch up, this was the picture, which of course can't describe the feeling of that same color tinting everything around me this early morning, on the island.

My home is in Mid Coast Maine as well. My farm house was built in the 1800's by early settlers who fished and farmed and sailed. I am not therefor far separated from the weather in Maine which has been below a frozen, snow driven tundra since I left. My leaving there is still attached to my being, in other words, where ever I may be.

I am a little smug about my departure however, because it flew in the face of (some) friends and(some) family's insistence that the best thing for me to do was to hunker down and just deal with the winter in Maine. Reality check : I have done that, and frankly, became clear that I am on the side of escape, traitors though we may be. To awaken on my departure date to a gentle first seasons snow, told me that my instincts were correct, and nothing has happened to changed that.

Bitter cold freezing out the northern states makes our cold front look like spring time.

But this blog is really not about the cold itself. Its about where you stand with the cold, and what you do about it. Its about making choices, accepting the consequences, and what makes life worth living. 

Setting 80 degrees as a bench mark for my perfect ambient temperature, I do like a cooler evening breeze through an open window for sleeping, I like a cool dip in the water, I enjoy chilled wine, and pictures of snowscapes.

 I love my old farm in Maine, but it will sleep as it has done before, quietly, through the dustings of snow. Its boards will crackle as they freeze. It's windows will glaze to look like sugar panes with the icing and thawing from warm sun to night cold.

I will awaken to this sky, and plan to go to the Farmers Market tomorrow, and go for a walk in flip flops without guilt. If there is a bill for this... I am prepared to pay.