and everyone was so happy and gay
for it was only twenty degrees below zero
and the sun shone."
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder ~
American author, 1967 - 1957
from These Happy Golden Years,
# 8 in the Little House series, p 25
One morning we ran into a neighbor at the store
and she asked brightly:
"What was it at your house?"
"Fourteen below," we replied.
Her face fell. "We had minus twelve," she said,
and you could see that her day was ruined.
~ Richard Ketchum ~
[Lacking bio info on this author; if anyone has, please supply. Thanks!]
Photographs
Above: Backyard ~ January Sunrise, 2005
Top: Front Yard ~ The Big Snow, February 2007
P.S. Why is backyard one word and front yard two words?
P.P.S. Another mighty chillyLittle House winter episode!
I had never thought about the backyard/front yard question before and now it's got me wondering, too. How very odd. I love your pictures and the quotes; especially the Richard Ketchum quote. I've seen this so often and probably had my day ruined by similar comparisons.
ReplyDeleteNote to self:
ReplyDeletegold backyard photo from Jan 30, 2005; stored in Finepix Feb 3, 2011
blue front yard photo from Feb 14 2007; stored in Aolis / Photos
(among other locations)
from Kathleen O'Gorman:
ReplyDelete"Stunning photo, Kitti, and I can never seem to get my comments to post to your blog, so I'll add mine here. While not explicitly addressing the cold, I had considered posting about having spent much of last night with the wind raging thinking of these lines from "Wind," by Ted Hughes:
"This house has been far out at sea all night,
The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills,
Winds stampeding the fields under the window. . ."
and later,
"The wind flung a magpie away. . . ."
I ended up just opting instead for the map with the -44 wind chill! Somehow, that seemed to do the job a bit more directly!"
My sister Di wrote:
ReplyDeleteI remember reading the "Little House on the Prairie" books, and they had some snow like that. I read them aloud to / with the kids. We'd bundle up under a blanket to read them. Those books always made us cold. Haha! xo