An Ode to Weather

/ roughwighting

CA weather, NE weather, peligans

The day began when the sun soon arose

But of course in New England that’s a hoax

Because all of our days do begin, yes,

But often the sun’s hidden, I confess.

NE cemetery

I miss the time when day gently began

With a bright orange orb in all the land

That shone over the blue Pacific Sea

And my soul soared in awe of such Beauty.shorebirds, Richardson Bay

But I’ve learned that day begins, sun or not

The birds still sing and I still find a spot

In my soul to embrace clouds and the rain

My thoughts wildly free with thunder untamed.

Great Meadow

So winter come forth! I’m ready for you

Mother Nature, I can handle your brew

I laugh at the snow and ferocious wind

Let’s dance together and go for a spin.

  

With gratitude for friends and family from coast to coast (and from my land to your land, wherever it may be). And an acknowledgment to powerful Mother Nature, from her frigid blast of New England wind to her soft fog through the Golden Gate.

120 thoughts on “An Ode to Weather”

  1. And down the coast a couple hundred miles from the Golden Gate, there’s a warm wind blowing the stars around and all my windows are open. We usually have our first frost around Thanksgiving but tonight is marvelous. Clear, starry, and warm. You can have your bluster, I’ll take this.

    Liked by 1 person

    • “There’s a warm wind blowing the stars around” – how I love that verse and that song. And the sentiment! No warm winds here now for at least five months. Sigh. Enjoy your beautiful CA space, Esther.

      Like

  3. Thank you Pam for this great poem and high spirited attitude to winter.
    Please, can I join you in your Snow Dance, it is absolutely delightful.
    I also love these soft flakes falling and see all get soft and pristine. The air smells clean too. So yes, let us dance.

    You say ” Mother Nature, I can handle your brew
    I laugh at the snow and ferocious wind.”
    Brilliant ! 😊⛷
    Miriam

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Pam, your post starts my day with much-needed laughter and tears…I just love your dance and spin in the snow and was right there with you! The glorious feeling of the snowflakes on one’s face, viewing the world transformed, the stillness and peace, the soft crunching of snow underfoot. Bliss. I was waiting for you to collapse to a snow angel!!😀😃 You look ready to handle anything Mother Nature throws at you and luckily the birds continue to sing and be there for us. hugs xx ❤️

    Liked by 1 person

    • Do you get snowstorms like this in your English neck of the woods, Annika? They come more frequently here in NE than I’d prefer. But that first wondrous day when the snow falls – it is SO magical. The next day…I wish it would all melt away. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    • To be truthful, when we moved back to CA after living in New England for ten years, I didn’t miss winter one iota. I am a sun and warmth kind of girl. But we’re back in the Boston area now, and lemonade should be made out of lemons; pumpkin pie should be made out of pumpkins; and a snow dance should be made out of a blizzard. 🙂

      Like

  9. I like the way you embrace it all, Pam. I love the photos.
    I am not ready for the real cold, though the snow if pretty. Today should be a nice fall day–the sun is out and the birds are singing.
    I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

    Like

    • When I grew up in southern NJ, we had cold icy winters, but not that much snow. Big difference up here in NE. Sigh. So I might as well dance into the icy freezing 4-month snow-white adventure, right?
      Thanksgiving was great – Turkey Trot at 32 degrees, but sun was out, so 1,000 people showed up. New Englanders are tough turkeys. 🙂 Enjoy your sunny weekend!

      Liked by 1 person

  16. It is a wonderful attitude you have Pamela and eloquently expressed. Although I must admit the wee video really made me smile. We have our fair share of the white stuff since a few weeks ago.

    Like

  18. I used to live in Connecticut and enjoyed the changes of temperature and seasons. The Connecticut sound kept our winters somewhat moderate but remember beautiful days of snow. Thanks for the video.

    Like

  19. Wonderful tribute to the weather and our mixed up relationship with it! Thanks for the smiles and sneak peek at winter. I almost forget what snow is. I love snow, but don’t enjoy too much cold. 🙂
    To gratitude, play, and embracing the wacky weather.

    Like

  20. We are two months into our full-on rainy season on Vancouver Island (which can last for 5 more months).
    Your post was a great reminder to accept Mother Nature’s brew as she chooses to spread it. But I do already miss our warm, dry, sun-drenched island!

    Like

    • Ah yes, Donna. That sounds a lot like the SF bay weather from November to March. Since I grew up in the East Coast, when I moved to the bay area I really made fun of the San Franciscans who whined about all the rain. “Better than snow!” I’d say. Welllll, now that I’m in New England, guess who’s getting the last laugh? 🙂
      Stay dry in your beautiful part of the world.

      Like

  22. I love your attitude of not putting life on hold to wait for the weather to be our idea of perfect. There is beauty in every day. This post is a good reminder to embrace whatever life throws at us and make the most of it. Well done, Pam.

    Like

    • Thanks for enjoying my Weather Ode, Mike. Yes, these are all my photos. The ones with sun in them are from my former bay area town; the ones with clouds are, of course, in my New England village. :-0

      Like

  24. Beautiful Pam! I love your dance in the snow — with abandonment and joy. Reminded me of Betty White doing a dance to mother earth in “The Proposal.” I’m not so eager for the snow as I used to be. Our last two winters have been mild in SW Ohio.

    Like

    • Oh, that’s so funny. I did a Betty White routine without even knowing it. I felt more like Lucy Ball, trying to collect all the chocolate shooting out, or in my case, catching snowflakes. 🙂
      I wish you a mild winter in Ohio this winter. I really do. Well, maybe one big snowstorm?

      Like

    • Thanks for the enjoying my sun and cloud-filled photos, Sue. Yes, when I saw the ‘ominous’ cloud hovering over the 1700s graveyard, I whipped out my camera. Late fall seems to bring forth the biggest darkest clouds here in NE. The orb I watched as I walked on the path overlooking the CA Richardson Bay. Quite a show.
      To you… I wish sunshine and warmth. ❤

      Like

  27. I love your attitude. As my father always said, “There is nothing you can do about the weather.” Of course, I did do something, I moved to Spain! It was 24C (75F) today and I read in the sun. I loved your Snow Dance though and your ode.

    Like

    • Oh, Darlene, you do know how to turn my face green. I’m breathing in and out to achieve a rosy (from the cold air today) glow to my face again. Haha. YES, you DID do something about the weather by moving to Spain. And I live there vicariously through you in the dead of winter. xo

      Like

    • Your 80s temp sounds so lovely. I’d write a poem to the warm lovely Texan weather if I lived there, believe me. But, sigh, I find beauty where I can, and we must admit, Mother Nature shows off all of her plumage in the white of a snowstorm.

      Like

  29. I danced with your weather frolic though not in the snow.

    My Florida day began bleak and turned sunny spending time with a long-time friend. I love how you embrace life – sun, rain, or snow!

    Like

    • Believe me, Marian, I’ve had my days when the cold dark days of winter have brought me down lower than the bottom step. But then I realize that spring here is more magnificent than any other place I’ve lived – because of those frigid snow-filled days. So…. I dance and write poetry. 🙂 Happiness to you in your warm home with warm hospitality, whether in person or on your blog.

      Like

    • The Jersey shore is beautiful in every season to me, Barbara. I usually only get there now in the summer (when I rejoice in the heat and the hot hot sun). But when I was a NJ high schooler, my friends and I would drive to the ‘shore’ in the dead of winter and walk along the frigid sand, laughing and roaring back at the surf. Enjoy your gorgeous part of the world.

      Like

  34. It’s a lovely attribute to be open to seeing the beauty wherever we reside. Your photographs are spectacular! It may be a little colder, but it is beautiful!

    Like

  36. I love your change of season poem…so true about the sun rising in New England but the last few sunrises have been gorgeous….Your dancing is superb. I’ll sign you up for the ballet…perhaps the Nutcracker next year…
    Hope your Thanksgiving was delightful.

    Like

    • Thanks for the laugh, Cheryl. My guy and I (and now our granddaughter) attend the Nutcracker every year – EVERY year. I know the Snowflake Princess role by heart. Think I have a chance?? 🙂

      Like

    • Once, in my 20 years in the bay area, we experienced snow. My guy and I and the kids were eating lunch up in a many-windowed top floor restaurant (at the Hyatt) in December, and suddenly, white flakes flew past our view. Such excitement. But it turned to sleet, and sleet on SF streets is slick and scary. Hail dropped on our Marin deck, and we gathered the hail balls and placed them in the freezer. The next day, it was 68 degrees. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  43. I’ve been around the country and the world — and I think I will always come back to New England. I love the seasons. And the holidays! I don’t know how some parts of the country or world interpret Christmas without the Colonial homes, chill and at least the chance of snow. Winters can be challenging; but there’s something even to that challenge that makes me feel … well, hardy. ;D

    Did you already get snow this year? We haven’t had our first yet, though the frost has come some nights.

    Liked by 1 person

    • No snow yet – this video is from last March. Remember how we got more snow in early March last year, than in February? ;-0 I wasn’t happy about it, but then I decided, ‘what the heck, might as well dance.’ When we lived in the sf bay area, on Christmas Day we opened all the windows (60 degrees out) closed all the shades, and kept a fire going on all day. It helped get in the New Englandy Xmas mood a bit.
      Stay hardy, my friend! ❤

      Like

  44. We stood outside Friday and Saturday morning last weekend ringing a Salvation Bell for the red kettle. It was 70 degrees and the sun was bright and warm. It doesn’t feel like Christmas is soon or that we just had Thanksgiving, but that’s Texas. Someone said he thought we would have better results if it was cold out, but I don’t think that would have changed anything. Weather has little to do with what is in someone’s heart. ❤ Merry Christmas Pamela! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  47. Well written – I enjoyed it very much and I can picture myself in several of the scenes you painted so vividly with your words as I have been on both coasts during all seasons and your words capture them beautifully.

    Like

  48. The day I’m reading this the high was 57 degrees with a beautiful sunny sky … in New Hampshire … in late November!! Then around 5 pm, a fierce wind blew through, the temp dropped 25 degrees and it started to pelt icy rain!!

    I learned a long time ago to just go with the flow with the weather here. When I visited my husband’s family in California, I noticed the gray skies first thing in the morning. I said offhandedly, “Oh, looks like it’s going to rain today.” My SIL said, “Nah, it always looks like that.”

    So there you go. New Englanders expect unpredictable weather. Those on the West Coast expect pollution.

    Like

    • So true, Kate. Never know what to expect hour to hour here in New England. Have to just dance through it. I will speak up for northern CA, though, where we don’t get the pollution like the LA area. No, if it’s “cloudy,” it’s from the fog flowing through the Golden Gate Bridge. My favorite sound is that of the fog horns blowing its warning to the ships on the Bay.

      Like

    • The cemeteries here in New England are revered, Roy, and considered ‘old’ for America, with gravestones from the 1770s (like the ones in my photo, which are in my NE town). A few miles away is Sleepy Hollow cemetery, which includes the graves of Henry David Thoreau and Emerson and Hawthorne, etc. I love walking along their hallowed ground.

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.