The Twighlight Zone

It is a beautiful, wintery Sunday morning in central Vermont. The stoves are all going. The fireplace is lit. Pachelbel‘s Cannon in D is coming through the sound system. My wife and children are setting the table for our traditional family brunch. Everyone is comfortably attired and cable knit sweaters abound as there is no other way to keep warm on mornings such as these.

A foot of new snow has fallen over night, and the trees’ branches are heavy with the weight of the snow, while they sparkle in the morning sun. The contrast of the bright white off the trees and the bright blue of the winter sky is almost too much on the eyes, and the temperature, as the skies cleared and the warmth of the fresh snow went with it, is once again in single digits.

If you look closely at the fresh snow surrounding the house you can see little tracks of the animals that have ventured out to find whatever food they can buried deep under the snow. This is the kind of morning when “sugar on snow” is at its best. We have not made it in a long while, but maybe later this morning. For those that don’t know, sugar on snow is when you take an area of clean, fresh snow, and you poor fresh, hot maple syrup over it. As you pour the hot syrup over the crisp, clean snow there is an instant reaction as the syrup literally cools around the snow and you wind up with maple crystals that are just delicious.

Meanwhile in the kitchen I am doing my best to please all parties, this is not a large family, just me, my wife, two girls and a boy, ages 12, 9, and 7, but this is a “high maintenance” family at times. I am in the process of making pancakes, waffles, and three omelets, not to mention wheat, rye, white toast, and two English muffins. Oh yeah, and home fries of course, no shredded potatoes here, these are huge chunks of potato, seasoning, butter, and onions all slow cooked together on the griddle. Maybe I should have opened the diner.

This is the perfect way to spend the perfect wintery Sunday morning in Central Vermont, at least it would have been.

Instead, the last three winters the lowest temperature I have seen is thirty three degrees and that was by traveling ten hours, and it was in mid-March. The only snow I have seen has been on Christmas day each of those three winters, again by traveling to go and find snow.

It was 109 ° yesterday, in the shade. Three years ago, almost to the day, I landed in the Twilight Zone, actually I drove into it, and there does not appear to be a way out. Maybe I will just write my way out. The family above, and the Sundays spent with them hasn’t happened yet. It is all very clear in my mind, and has been all my life, just not yet a reality. Maybe some day soon.

Thank you again for getting this far