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Oh, The Weather Outside Was Frightful
How I spent the first day of 2017 and other wintery scenes
I was going to start this first day of 2025 by going for a walk — you know, New Year’s resolutions and all that. But the day is drawing to a close and I’m still in my fleecy winter nightclothes, telling myself that I deserve a day of sloth. I do. Really. Anyway, it’s cool and grey here in southern France, it gets that way sometimes. And there’s even a chance of rain. My hair might get wet.
So, in full slothful mode, I drifted over to Facebook, which informed me that eight years ago, on this very day, I was back in the States for a visit. Snow had fallen during the night, transforming the fields around my son’s house on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula into a winter wonderland. Braving the cold, I trudged outside with my camera.
It was beautiful. Before moving to France, I’d lived in Washington for six years but never got over the magical transformation of a heavy snowfall. Even wire fences looked beautiful with a dusting of snow.
Living there, I even ventured into the local mountains for a bit of snowshoeing. Since my cabin was at the…