The Snows of Yesteryear Keep Coming Back

"After supper we went up-stairs and smoked and read in bed to keep warm. Once in the night I woke and heard the wind blowing. It felt good to be warm and in bed."
-- The Sun Also Rises

I didn't hear the wind last night, and I didn't smoke, but otherwise it felt good to be warm and in bed during the wee hours of the first day of December. Light snow fell all night. In the morning, we woke to the first substantial snow cover of the season.

In December, snow still has some charms. A lot depends on what you have to do and where you need to go. As the winter grinds on, the charms gradually vanish, even if you can stay indoors.

Tree- and bush-branches collected a lot of snow, and because the cloud cover persisted all day, they kept most of it. The skies were still overcast in the evening, which was too bad, because clouds obscured the conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter. I've been watching Venus and Jupiter draw closer together for a while now in the early evening sky, occasionally even pointing it out to Lilly and Ann, who weren't convinced that it was all that special.