Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Winter magic...


"Our snow was not only shaken from whitewash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees;


...snow grew overnight on the roofs of houses like a pure and grandfather moss,


...minutely white-ivied the walls and settled on the postman, opening the gate, like a dumb, numb thunderstorm of white, torn Christmas cards."

The above was from my favorite Christmas book, in fact it is among my top few favorites books of all-time; A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. Get it. Read it. If possible, get the edition illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Thomas's words are pure delight.


What can one do when snowed in, but bake Maple cookies?


All that was yesterday. Today the sun is shining, but it is -6 degrees F outside, so I'm not going out today either! (Yes, that was a minus six!) I believe I'll make Spicy Chocolate Shortbread today (the spice is cayenne pepper.)


The sun is making beautiful shadows on the snow. But I am only taking photos right now from the backdoor, and those I am taking quickly. It is warm and toasty inside. Outside, it is not.

8 comments:

Erin at Being Poetry said...

Any chance that you would post the maple cookie recipe? I'm salivating! Thanks for the beautiful pictures.

Theresa said...

With sprinkling eyes and wind-cherried noses, on spread frozen feet they crunched up to the doors and mittened on them manfully....
It's a beautiful piece of writing and reading it out loud every Christmas eve is a family tradition.

K Spoering said...

Yes! That "mittened on them manfully" is one of my favorite written phrases! I think of that when I see our postman crunching through the snow to our door.

K Spoering said...

Erin, I got the recipe from a magazine, either a Better Homes holiday cooking one or one called Shortcut Holiday Cooking. I got it at the library, but have seen it in the bookstores, too. It's probably a copyright protected one, but if you can't find it and still want the recipe, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Anonymous said...

What glorius snow. I was excited to see the sputtering that we got in Georgia on Sat. I think it snowed for a whole 10 minutes!
If this is your arts and crafts house, I would sit in the dark in it anyday. It is beautiful.

Jennifer said...

Oh my - I'm enjoying seeing your pictures of snow - but only from a distance! -6F???? Oh my - I hurt just thinking about it!
Tell me about that star that is above Booker's head in his picture. That looks quite interesting - and the mape cookies I'm sure are fabulous...

K Spoering said...

Lauren, yes, this is our home. We love it, even when it's dark, and feel quite fortunate to live in it. It has a lovely history.

Jennifer, the star is one given to us by our son and his wife a few years ago. It is Scandinavian. It is one of our favorite holiday decorations!

Julia Kelly said...

Aren't those the best days!! I love the berries on the branches in the snow!

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