The Big Chill has us in its thrall, sweeping down through Canada, traveling all the way to Florida! Helicopters are being used to hover over vegetable crops there, trying to bathe them with warm air and keep the hard frost at bay.
I am sitting almost on top of the wood stove in an effort to keep warm, and tomorrow morning, after spending the night in -10C temperatures, the jaunty chickadees, singing spiritedly, will plunge from the tall white pines, diving to the feeder for a sunflower seed, looping up to a perch where they will heartily rip it apart, extricate the sweet kernel, then flit their tiny bodies back for more, as though they had not just accomplished the most amazing feat by not freezing to death in the night!
Everyone was happy at school today, knowing that the Christmas holidays are nearly upon us! The last day of art class before the holidays has traditionally become one where we make Christmas cards, or "holiday" cards, as it is not politically correct to call them the Christmas Holidays. In Boston in 2005 the huge Christmas tree which decorates Boston common was renamed the "Holiday Tree" until a number of threatened lawsuits encouraged its return to the "Christmas Tree" (Amazing that people care enough about something like that to go to court!)
So each child went home with a colourful card decorated with presents, or a green fir tree (which harks back to pagan times anyway) or with beautiful six-sided snowflakes. They worked at their tables surrounded by their friends, happy and quietly contented, breaking out into Christmas song every now and then, such a peaceful day, such wonderful creativity animating the room.
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