Winter Fairly

"It's cold and raw, the north winds blow
Black in the morning early
When all the hills were covered with snow
Oh then it was winter fairly."

Winter has come and startled everyone. We had a cold October, then a very mild November, and no one was sure what would follow that. But now it's quite cold, about 20 degrees fahrenheit and a good deal colder than Oslo. It's windy too, and that's worse, but it's actually bright and sunny now after weeks of rain.

I still can't tell how Zahra's going to take the true winter, now that it's really arrived. Sometimes she seems very resilient, like when she wears open shoes and sloshes through puddles when it's 50 degrees out, but other times she seems to be dying when it's about the same temperature. I want her to get a big puffy coat, for snow play if for nothing else, but for now she's still looking elegant and stylish in her grey wool.

Last night was the first snow of the year that I felt any certainty about: walking after midnight we saw just two or three flakes at a time, slowly and steadily drifting through the lamplight. They were almost impossibly small, and disappeared before they hit the ground.