The Second Storm
February 27, 2026
Jasmine-like scent from the flowering citrus trees. Bird song in the garden, with the goldfinches just starting to yellow up. Valentine roses- deep pink and finally starting to open...
But outside? Sixty mph winds and looking out the windows- entirely white- two feet of snow, with more to come. Blizzard. No power. Well, looks like we're in for awhile- to write, try to catch something of the storm on paper, knit, read an actual book, cook- though no baking. No rehearsal this week! With the rocking chair pulled near the woodstove, and with the Peruvian alpaca leg warmers my father gave me fifty years ago after one of his many trips to South America, the cold from the floor at least is staved off. So lucky I made all those candles last year- and brought back the antler candle ring from the farm, into which I can set six tapers. We'll need them all, for light yes but a lot of them also seem to add warmth to the air.
Second day. I mentioned in the previous post the storms of 2014. As we've been through this before, I'm not as nervous, but it's still awfully cold. Here though is the great thing- it's a happy opportunity to complete the series of snow paintings I began of a weather event I thought Falmouth would never see again, yet here we are and with, it seems, even higher levels than last time. It's a fantasy place outside, completely Dr Zhivagoland. Ice palaces everywhere, "Christmas Story" sized icicles, pops of color as birds mill over dark patches of bird seed. As I've already done one of birds of blue I'm considering a composition of cardinals. Here is one from 2014 of the frozen Buzzard's Bay, which I did'nt think much of at the time but am happy to revisit now.
All ice, from West Falmouth beaches across to Fairhaven. And while that was the winter of our Snowy owl irruption, this year has brought another phenomenon right to the backyard. A Great Blue Heron has found our fishpond. The bay is iced over, which means the harbor is, and the lagoons and ponds and- everything. I'm the one with a source of running water (the fishpond fountain) ... Is it braving suburbia out of desperation? And as one of the paintings I started back then was of an overflying heron of which I had only a glimpse of at the time it's great to have one to pose for me now. Here are the studies, which I will use to create the third large piece for my Falmouth wildlife series along with completing the first one.
Yes this was seriously in my backyard.
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