Joys of winter

As winter closes in, take a moment to look on the bright side. The sights and sounds and smells of the season make it a time to relish, not just something to soldier through.

The scraping at night of steel blades against pavement reminds us that a whole legion of snowplow operators is busy making driveways and roads reasonably usable by morning rush.

Once the snowfall has stopped for a while, driving slowly to watch out for black ice gives a chance to enjoy the clear winter air, the pale blue of the winter sky, the sharp profiles of the hills, unobstructed by summer’s leaves.

A glimpse of the ocean shows its deep blue contrasted with whitecaps in a winter northwester and white breakers crashing against the granite. Lakes are freezing solid, and ice fishermen soon will be out there, snug in their bob-houses, alert for a bite.

A flash of color comes as we pass a schoolyard and see tiny figures in their red, blue, green and yellow jackets, caps, mufflers and gloves.

Later, waiting for a yellow school bus to unload, we watch the children race out of the bus in headlong flight for home and warmth. Morning movements are slower.

Shadows elongate in winter, and dusk comes early. But remember that by late December the days begin to lengthen again in preparation for a distant spring.

The primary sound of winter is no sound – the muffled silence, as a new snowfall blankets trees and houses and roads and seems to quiet down the whole world.

Winter smells include a whiff of wood smoke curling up from the chimney of a roadside house, the morning wakeup call of coffee brewing and bacon frying, the aroma of sage dressing and spicy pumpkin pie when turkey is on the menu.

But for a few days after Christmas, beware of one more winter smell – the miasma of male cologne, a gift item wives like to buy but no real man would touch voluntarily.