Don Sutherland's articles with the keyword: winter

In his Chronicles of England , Richard Grafton wrote, “Thirty days hath November…” Yet, thirty days is sufficient time for this transitional month to bring one from one season into another. November is the elegant bridge that leads from autumn to winter. As one walks across that bridge, autumn’s brilliant colors fade. The sun’s golden rays offer memories of fall’s disappearing warmth, but the days grow ever shorter. Delicate ice crystals from morning frost sometimes glazes the way ahead.…

The long winter [seemingly endless autumn in much of Europe] of 2013-14 has yielded to spring. As if to shatter any lingering doubts about the seasonal regime change that has now taken place, the booming cannon of a thunderstorm reverberated across the now colorful landscape earlier today. Spring comes bearing two powerful messages. Through its remarkable transition, sometimes in the face of fierce Arctic counterattacks from retreating winter, it speaks eloquently of renewal and resilience.…

On February 7, I posted a photo of the illuminated leaves of a Japanese Maple taken shortly after sunrise on a late October day. And then: nothing more. The days passed. The weeks passed. A month passed. No photos. No blog entries. Nothing. It was not until April 1, before I posted another photo. Time will tell whether that posted photo was an April Fool’s joke. Perhaps I had heeded the timeless advice of the bears of Yellowstone National Park from one of my past vacations: “When it’s winter…

Even as parts of Europe remain locked in abnormal warmth in spite of the calendar’s having been turned to a fresh new year—Muscovites might be forgiven for wondering if the calendar forgot winter—parts of North America have experienced cold that has not been witnessed for almost 20 years in some places. An anonymous 16th Century writer once observed: This winter’s weather it waxeth cold, And frost it freezeth on every hill, And Boreas blows his blast so bold That all our cattle are li…