Life in the Dead of Winter

It doesn't take long after the snow starts to stick to the ground for me to forget what grass looks like. I forgot what the trees look like with leaves on them, and what the world looks like with color. All I seem to remember and be able to picture is the brilliant white ground of snow and the stark, bare trees reaching out like fingers. Fingers without nail polish on them. No color, anywhere.

Landing in California on 1/4/11 was like breathing in a blast of life and color into my blinded white Minnesota soul. Green grass! Blue sky! Flowers! Dirt!

There was no snow, no ice and no goose-down parkas to be seen anywhere.

It's amazing how a dash of foliage and green grass can pick up my sullen winter spirit. It did just that during the week we spent in California.