A GRUMPY LOOK AT WEATHER

It is almost Christmas. It is not cold here yet, altho we have had a sprinkling of snow. I know many people love cold weather, like to ski and sled and run around dressed so they appear to be variations of the Michelin Tire Man, but I am not one of them.

I prefer the warmer climes, and I know that the worst is yet to come.Someone said we are halfway through winter. Humbug. We are no such thing. Here in the midwest winter may not start on schedule but it can hang on like a cat on a screen door. April blizzards are not April Showers. And I know that shortly I will be longing for robins and green grass and going outside without spending 45 minutes looking for my other glove so my hand does not freeze to the steering wheel.
I will be tired of foggy eyeglasses, snotty noses, tracking snow into the kitchen and then slipping on the wet floor.

I like the idea that the seasons change. I just wish winter were like maybe two weeks long.

So, with that in mind I have gathered warm and comforting images of warmer weather--- some of it so warm that clothing sticks and rivulets of sweat dribble between shoulder blades.
Nevertheless, I prefer that to spicules of frozen hair when I go out after a shower....

Petunias. Actually I hate petunias, but they do evoke warmth, sun, a growing season, green grass....pollen.

BEACHES!!! I love beaches. I love hot sand and the surf. I love trying to get the sand off my wet butt and discovering I am the only woman on the beach who weighs more than 75 pounds...

Florida sun. Florida birds. This one was stalking the causeway between the mainland and Sanibel Island. We were there (oh so long ago) in May so it wasn't scorching.

I love Pelicans. The Pelicans are like freighters. They lumber, but they can do amazing things. The Ospreys come in like fighter jets, but the Pelicans have staying power.

Summer fun in the dust and heat and broiling sun. There is, actually, a cow in that dust someplace, and the horse knows where it is even if the rider doesn't have a clue. With these horses you hang on and pray and let the horse do what he is bred to do. Which is, catch the cow. (More or less, of course.)

August. The Iowa State Fair. This is the Industrial Arts building, and all the people are mostly in this building to see the life-sized, refrigerated butter cow. Yes indeed, made entirely of butter....

At the Fair everyone gets involved in the horse shows. How did they get the stirrups  up that short and WHERE did the find the hat???

And then there are the adults....

I like summer. I love bumble bees. They look cuddly. Probably they aren't. Oh well.
Come back some day when the wind is howling and the snow is piled against the cabin door and you still have to go out and chop more wood.....