Here in Northern California, February is always the coldest, wettest, most winter-y month. We certainly need all the rain we can get this year, as we’ll probably have water rationing by summer. To celebrate the last week of very wet stormy weather, I’m giving away a copy of my book Winter along with an instruction sheet for making the crown and blizzard binding (Winter uses the crown version of the binding). To enter the drawing, just put a comment on this post about what you like (or don’t like) about winter by Wednesday February 25. I’ll pick a random name and announce the winner on Thursday February 26.
What a nice giveaway. I’ll comment, mostly because I don’t know if I’ve ever commented on your blog, but I’ve been reading every post you write for quite a while now. I am a great admirer of yours. You do beautiful work. You also make me miss home, in a sweet way, because I grew up in the Bay Area. It is my favorite place in the world.
Before I had children I would have said that my favorite thing about winter was hunkering down at home on a snowy day to watch the snow falling. Now, with two little children, these not much peace to be had on such a day. Now may favorite part of winter is the end. I love it when the birds return to our trees. I love it when the snow, all dirty from the sand and salt they throw on it, melts and washes the streets clean. I love the return of barefoot weather, and the return of seeing my neighbors daily when we meet up so our children can play together. The end of winter signals warmth and joy. The return of outdoor living.
Two words: wood fires. Curling up in front of the fireplace with the dog is the most luxurious thing about winter evenings, and it is the thing I miss most about my parents home when I am away. It’s just not the same when you curl up next to a heat duct. 🙂
My country is winter. Deep cold and snow, the joy of skiing hard, with my border collie Wendy ahead galloping and barreling through the new snow, turning back, smiling and urging me on and on. And the cozy house warming me as I come home, with art and books waiting for me in the studio. Then the change in January when the evening light lingers and we know spring, which was only a thought, is now a promise.
I love the fog and the feeling of peace that it brings. We only get fog in the winter and I really enjoy walking around it in the early morning as the sun starts to rise.
What I don’t like about winter is dry skin. What I do like about winter, now that I am in North Carolina, is the 1 – 2 snow per year, rather than per day!
I like the smell of snow and hot toddys with chai tea and bourbon.
Oh, and listening to the birds in the bottle brush tree. That’s where they hide from the wind.
Smelling the snow when it’s on its way; smelling the earth waking up when it’s on its way out. Knowing there’s no difference.
I love when it’s the first snow fall and everything it so pretty and untouched and you can watching it outside the window while drinking a warm cup of hot chocolate.
I like that I don’t have to feel guilty for staying indoors and reading!
I like the blue twilight on snowy days.
I love (and miss!) incredibly cold mornings when the whole world felt like it was frozen still. I hate that winter now (as an Oregonian) is mostly rain – though the day-long fogs of January are admittedly beautiful.
I love winter because of how clean everything looks right after a snow fall.
I am definitely a winter person. I love the snow. I love the feeling of exhilaration when I am outside in the cold weather. My dogs also love the winter – so it is great to take them out.
I think the thing that is most wonderful to me about winter…snow transforming everything that it blankets… old tractors robed in white, the branches and fence posts become magical… everything renewed, changed…
I love the clean look and simplicity of the book. We don’t get much (hardly any) snow here on the coast of Virginia so the idea of a snowy winter day is very appealing.
winter is the death before the rebirth of spring…
My country is near the equator and we only have summer the whole year. I wish it will snow one day a year because I’ve never seen or touched snow.
There’s a Chinese adage which says :
Winter has already arrived, do you still think Spring is far away?
What I like? No P.E when it’s too cold or raining.
What I don’t like? When it’s too cold or raining heavily. *Sneeze*
One of the things I like about winter: water frozen in time (icicles) glittering in the sunshine, then slowly melting, hearing it drip, drip, drip, then the kerplunk of the icicle as it falls off the gutter and hits the ground, shattering into many pieces like fine crystal.
I too have been reading and enjoying your blog but have never posted a comment.
Baltimore winters tend towards the cold and gray without much snow. So for me-
Winter is several months of the light being cold and wrong.
Winter helps me enjoy the warmer months so much more:)
I hate the winter because I live in upstate New York, and we get foot after foot of snow for months! The hot chocolate is pretty nice though 🙂
May Canadians enter? I love being able to use the wood stoves (especially the cookstove), and I hate how dark it is all the time.
I prefer Spring than Winter but I love winter when I can rest home in front of the chimney reading a good book…
Thanks for the chance… I’ve found your blog through the giveaway and I’m so happy! I suscribed to you blog after visiting your gallery work. It’s fantastic!
cal_rubies(at)yahoo(dot)es
I suscribed to you blog after visiting your gallery work.
What a fabulous giveaway! I’ve just started getting in to bookmaking (thinking about taking a class at the Mpls Center for Book Arts), so this is especially great. I’m a winter baby, and it’s my favorite season…at least until spring rolls around. I think I like the romance of it all…snowflakes, ice skating, drinking hot cocoa. Although scraping ice off my car is less nice. 🙂
The best thing about winter for this girl who grew up in Key West (and now lives in the mountains of North Carolina) is that THERE IS ONE! Surprisingly for someone who spent the majority of her life to date in southern climes, I don’t know how to swim, I don’t like going to the beach (except at night), and I don’t like hot weather. I am thrilled each year when the weather turns cool, then cold, and sad when it begins to warm up again.
I like that after the first day of winter (the solstice), the days start getting longer again. Even amid grey slushy piles of dirty snow and salt-stained soggy hems, there’s hope for spring.
I’m not a big fan of winter. I don’t like the cold and the gloomy gray skies are depressing to me. I love to feel the warmth of the sun on my body. The sunshine makes me feel alive and I love the brightness and the longer days of summer.
for me, winter is a time to layer up in clothing. and i love that. especially when i think about it right now when we are in mid-summer at the moment – winter seems like such a wonderful idea!
[and please, please, please send up some rain down here near the bottom of Australia – we are desperately in need]
I LOVE winter. The sight of newly fallen snow first thing in the morning takes my breath away no matter how many times I see it.
I love being able to wear pretty scarves and sweaters 🙂
wonderfullymade729 at gmail dot com
I love when it snows on Christmas! It makes it feel perfect. I just hate driving in it.
A comment about winter? I’m not a huge fan, I’ll be honest. ☺ Where I live we’ve had at 12 major storms and there are days I’m sure I’ll never be warm enough. I’m wishing for days of green and sun so I can start my garden!
A great giveaway. The only thing I like about winter is that I do spend more time with my husband sitting on the sofa and talking.
pink sunrises and sunsets behind black bare branches; the way the snow cover absorbs sound and makes the streets so quiet…..a treat when living in the city.
We don’t often have snow, and some winter days you’ll find us in shorts and sandals, but…
I love seeing the shapes of naked trees. Hard lines and bends, graceful dips and curves. Seeing how nature has whipped and shaped the branches and trunks. Foggy mornings that smother evergreens and make them ghostly and grim. Crispy frost crackling underfoot, and watching your breath drift away. The strange brightness of the moon and stars and the wind whipping around us.
What I love about winter is skiing on fresh powder on a bright sunny day – which also means being on holiday as I live in the UK. What I hate is the damp that comes with winter in the UK.
I love the peace after heavy snowfall – everything sounds different, quieter.
How many whites and grays can surround, showing the shape of everything and the rolling layers of terrain.
I, too, enjoy reading your blog regularly as I share your enthusiasm for letters, numbers, maps and letterpress printing – and your wonderfully creative uses of all of them. As a native Californian, what I love about winter is the incredibly clear air after a good rainfall (of which we’ve had too few in recent years). Suddenly, every detail of the mountains becomes clear and the Channel Islands appear to have been towed in closer to the shore, while the ocean sparkles. Great weather for walking at low tide!
Like others my favorite thing in winter is curling up with a good book and a big mug of chai tea. This winter I thoroughly enjoyed the Twilight series! It got this 50+ yr. old in touch with my inner teenager minus the zits and mood swings.
I love the cold nights for sleeping. Living in Texas after being raised in NH I have a terrible time sleeping in hot weather.
Thanks for having the wonderful giveaway
dianad8008 AT gmail DOT com
I’m commenting, more because I am new to your site and I am enjoying your posts – I love winter’s ability to force me to see the smaller beauties. The way the constant grey light filters colors and makes everything misty and soft. The joys of cuddling close to my (always warm) honey and feeling his arms curl around me. I love the smell of rain and the way sunlight shines white against the stormgrey clouds after the rain passes through…
Stasia
I like winter because of Christmas.
Love winter! the snow actually, snow + sunny days. Not grey days, and rain…
Love to walk in snow shoes through the forest, feel he snow falling…it looks like a calm magic dream!