The crunch of crusty snow underfoot. The cold wind in your face. The woods to yourself.

It’s February.

Peaches loves February. Sniffing for scents of animals who have left tracks in the snow. Or, rather, ON the snow.

Me? Well. This winter? It’s tough. A lot of ice. A lot of lousy footing. Kind of sort of very challenging. Challenging for walking. Challenging to like.

My days go like this: wake up. Grouse. Go outside. Grouse some more. Get back inside. Whew!

What these days ARE good for?

Appreciating color. There is so little outside. It’s buried under that snow. You know you’ll someday see blue. Someday red. And yellow popping up.

Like traditional European painting. The undercoating for all those gorgeous browns and greys you see in those works: red. blue. yellow. You don’t see just grey in the artwork. You see a warm grey. Or cool. The browns are tinted as well. Giving them subtlety. Glow. Life.

Underpainting.

Under snow.

We know it’s there, don’t we? The alive ground. Full of life. Coming.