It is such a pretty day out there. Blue skies, bright sunshine, the world covered in marshmallow mounds of fresh snow. All the wind blowing stuff around does it.

The evergreen trees in our yards are frosted with fresh snow. I’m pretty sure my neighbors would not be happy with me posting pictures that included their houses so we will have to make do with word pictures. The world is beautiful this morning.

The cheerful vision makes me want to venture out but only until I check the temperature. -25C feels like -37C with the wind chill. I will be staying inside, enjoying the sun streaming in the windows.

The warmth of that bright light is appreciated but it’s also a challenge. Bananas on the counter and plants on the table are fair game. I keep moving things into the shade but it’s a losing battle. The sun is relentless in moving across the sky, coming in the windows at new angles.

I’m not complaining, though, I just have to remember to do a better job of hiding things.

The positive side of all that light far outweighs the negative. It’s hard not to feel cheerful at times like this.

I admit it is still possible to feel down if I allow my thoughts to turn inward and stay there for any length of time. I’m not planning to go to that place willingly.

On a brighter note: as mentioned a day or so ago I went grocery shopping before the promised winter storm hit, to replenish my dwindling food supply. I am ready.

I behaved and stocked up on fruit, vegetables, and other healthy things too, but you have to admit, ice cream does make things go better.

I haven’t seen this particular flavor of ice cream in a while and it sounded like a good idea at the time. It’s turned out to not be my favorite. Too sweet I think. But still, it’s ice cream, how can that be bad. Next time it will be back to tried-and-true black cherry. Or pistachio or maybe chunky caramel.

The other treasure found while strolling through the aisles was my new favorite coffee. It’s seasonal, Winter Blend, and will disappear soon. Since it was on at clearance prices, I picked up four, and I’m still smiling at my good fortune. I considered taking more but I didn’t want to be greedy, and besides, they were on the back of the top shelf. That was a major deciding factor. There were no tall people around and I would have had to climb the shelves to get more. I could visualize how well that was going to work out for me.

All this talk of coffee, I need some.

I’ll be back soon to talk about books, y’all.