Winter Beauty!

One more day and 2010 will be gone, something we can never get back!  Mr. Bill not sure he'd like to have it back, but as best buddy Ward reminds us, "One not so good season doesn't make the entire year a bad one!" Absolutely!  Today warmed to around seventy degrees.  Perhaps had the sun appeared....upper seventies would of returned.  This afternoon all 2010 Christmas decorations returned to the darkness of their storage bins...glitter stuck on the carpet will continue to remind us of the season past.  Looking forward to the new year, Mr. Bill thumbs through the Burpee seed and flower catalog.  This little piece of Springtime heaven arrived two days after Christmas.....another season, another wish list.  Antsy to begin, yet cautious because of the past two weeks of killer frost, the Egg-Nazi is chafing at the bit.  He'd be out there now tilling up the flower beds, but chemo has left him feeling rather cold and achy, much like winter flu season.  It is probably a blessing in disguise...he knows the chance of more frost,very likely.  Strange weather all across the nation, so we probably shouldn't complain, at least the white stuff stays to the north.  Son, Todd says the last storm could of been worse, the eye must of gone directly over Eastern Connecticut, sparing the little Town of Sprague.

Today as I was packing away Christmas "stuff", saving the holiday cards, I came across a few photos of Fred's News, with it's stark winter wardrobe.  Not too inviting from the outside, gone were the flowers, beckoning sidewalk benches and cute as a button carved bears, perhaps they too were hibernating for the season.  I seem to remember taking the picture just for that reason.  Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder...Beaver Brook frozen solid along side Fred's News, no fish, turtles or snakes, just the naked trees lining the sides, no protection from the frigid cold, yet the sun, shining through ice coated branches, so stunningly beautiful.  The thin ice covering what little water was left in the brook, took on a pattern of ice crystals so cold and bare yet so delicate, their beauty breathtaking.  Only the picture records the beauty, no human or animals dared brave the cold bitter wind and ice.  Yet just around the corner, the warm atmosphere of Fred's News, beckoned all who venture out in the dead of a New England Winter. The aroma, of steamy hot coffee, homemade soups and stews, perhaps a stick to your ribs, sausage gravy and biscuits, a perfect way to start the cold day or just warm your innards!