Today’s topic from Long and Short Reviews is “Favorite Thing to do in Winter”. In Alabama, we don’t get snow (not usually, northern Alabama just got a few inches last week), so I’m not skiing or sledding or anything. It’s usually business as usual, just with more clothes on. Winter does provide unique photo opportunities, since the lack of foliage allows for sights I wouldn’t otherwise see. It’s also a time to think about the spring garden (which I’m hoping to bring back for the first time since it got overgrown while I was recovering from the transplant back in ’22). I need to break out my bush axe and attack some overgrowth! It’s also good hiking season since there’s less heat, snakes, and bugs to worry about.
WHAT have you finished reading recently? If You Lived Here, You’d be Home Already, a memoir of a big city boy moving to rural Minnesota; and a sort of re-read of The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry. I say sort of re-read because while I’ve read the book, this time I listened to the audio version read by Nick Offerman, also known as Ron Swanson. Offerman is a big fan of Berry’s writing, and it’s nice to inaugurate the Great Re-Read this year with one of my very favorite authors.
WHAT are you reading now? I’ll finish Along came Google shortly — it’s a read for library science class, and is a brief history of digitization — and am also nosing into Movement, a critique of urban planning and transportation policy in the US.
WHAT are you reading next? Oh, who knows! This is the Kindle shelf:
Reading Freely 
“…business as usual, just with more clothes on” made me chuckle. You’re so right. And you’re also right about the photo opportunities. One of my uncles is a keen photographer and, in my opinion, the pictures he takes in the winter are the nicest. There’s a certain starkness to winter that I like.
Yep! Some of my favorite IG shots have been witner ones.
Your winter sounds like autumn or spring in Ontario! Milder weather is so much nicer for spending lots of time outdoors.
If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Already sounds interesting. I have a cousin who grew up in a big city in the U.S. south but moved to the Midwest to get married later on as an adult. It was a big adjustment for her to deal with the cold, snow, and being hours away from big cities.
Lydia
Ohh, I know. One of my cousins moved to South Dakota and….🤣 We got to experience her culture and cold shock vicariously.
I also enjoyed “business as usual, just with more clothes on” as it made me chuckle! It’s interesting hearing from people in different climates than mine, as the idea of winter being prime hiking weather is such a strange one for a Canadian! I’m on the we(s)t coast, so our winters are not bitterly cold. We haven’t had snow yet at all. But they are wet, so the cold, though not as low on the thermometer, is one that’s unpleasant to be out in for long. And there’s lots of mud, fallen leaves and branches (and the occasional tree) and general gloominess. The one up side, I suppose, to hiking in the winter here is not having to worry about hibernating bears…. At any rate, I’m glad to hear that you’re feeling up to tackling the garden this spring – it’s so much work if it’s gotten overgrown, we have now had two summers and one spring with ours and it’s just not seeming to improve very much! I wish you luck!
Wendell Berry is good in all weather.
Pris cilla King
Good luck with getting the garden back. I’m in the middle of trying to do that too. And planning how I can design it a bit differently so that it is easier to maintain – especially during those times where illness or injury can result in everything quickly getting out of control again.
Winter in Alabama sounds chill, except for right now with the bit of snow. But good luck with your garden! 🙂 From your Kindle shelf I think I’m most curious about Primate Change.
I did a review of it recently. I would link you but for some reason my computer has decided to not work today so I’m having to internet from my phone .
Oh my, that’s annoying! I hope your internet is working better now. I am debated downloading WordPress on my phone to catch up on comments because I get behind on those a lot. haha
Here we go:
Not having my computer made class last night interesting. The camera on my chromebook is awful, so people just saw my office/library space and this black shadow wearing a Red Sox cap sitting in the middle of it. (I wear a ballcap during zoom class to remind myself that I’m ‘in public’ in a sense and shouldn’t make faces, etc…)
Oh geez, back to writing down notes manually, I imagine? Or maybe you don’t write notes? I didn’t write notes often in class because I couldn’t pay attention+write good notes at the same time. 😂
I love that visual reminder, that’s clever 😛 although if your camera is that bad maybe you can get away with making faces hehe.
I could manage notetaking with my chromebook. 🙂 Unfortunately I have to mail the computer back to the company once I’ve satisfied them that I’ve done all the preliminary troubleshooting, so I’m going to see if I can just linger in the library Thursday night for my next class….
Ah okay 🙂
Oh geez that’s annoying but thank goodness for the library 🖤!!