Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Thursday, February 11, 2021

February

Photos by Salt Water New England 

“I don't lie about a winter temperature I've seen on the thermometer outside my bedroom window, when I report it at the office later in the morning. But if it is a very low reading, I don't announce it right away either. I wait for others to report the reading on their thermometers. Then, if the reports are higher than mine, I weigh my timing carefully, and at what I consider to be an appropriate moment, play my own reading....  

A brief but satisfying victory is mine if there follows nothing but some wows, no-kiddings, and is-that-rights. Often, however, someone will have waited even longer to play an even lower temperature. The victory is then his or hers.”  

- Judson Hale, Inside New England

 










 

21 comments:

  1. I love the temp report competition. Its the little things like that which get us through what sometimes feels like the longest season of the year. Feels even longer with national lockdowns and very poor weather since October on this side of the Atlantic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Winter Bliss! Glorious time of year...PA

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha! Love the low temperature game!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sheer perfection! Thank you so very much!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ahhh, been waiting for these! Quoting Thoreau "Standing quite alone, far in the forest, while the wind is shaking down snow from the trees, and leaving the only human tracks behind us, we find our reflections of a richer variety than the life of cities."

    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Excellent pics! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. A quick google shows us to be 2 hours north of Mr. Hale - 14° vs. 20° - we win!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I enjoyed the temperature game until I went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota, then settled on the East Coast (Southern New Hampshire, then Washington, DC). Unless I happen to be hiking and sleeping out in northern New Hampshire or New York in the middle of the winter, which happens a week or two per year, I can't compete with my friends who settled in Duluth or points north of there. (at 9 a.m. central time today, it's -12 degrees fahrenheit in Duluth).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Here in the mountains above Vancouver, I can win the local brackets but can never win outside my division. It will be -12c on Friday, hardly competitive with the GOATs.

    David J Cooper

    ReplyDelete
  10. Although Austin is more likely to have office competitions for highest temperatures (and highest lows) it is freezing and drizzling, and several days of sub-freezing temperatures accompanied by about four inches of snow are forecast. I prefer this to lows above eighty. I am actually wearing socks!

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's still really winter there! Love it! Rumor has it that the mountains here in north Georgia may get a flake of snow next week. Hmmmm....

    ReplyDelete
  12. In central Europe we are finally getting some below freezing winter temps and people are losing their minds, forgetting how to drive in snow, etc.

    The cold temps are so much more comfortable than summer heat-- I can add a sweater (and thanks to the thread from earlier this week on here the Norwegian has been pulled out of the cupboard!), scarf, turtleneck, longies, ragg socks, etc. to be comfortable, whereas when it is hot there is only so much one can or wants to take off and is still sweaty, sticky, etc.

    Plus it's much nicer to brush snow from the car than to scrape ice!

    --EM

    ReplyDelete
  13. New Englanders... suggest you don’t play this game with someone from Saranac Lake, New York.
    You’ll lose every time. Unless you live in the Sherm Adams Hotel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. I lived there for several years. We always had the coldest temps in the region except for, occasionally, Mt. Washington, NH. We always said that was cheating though because, well, because. My husband calls my competitive snow and cold sport tendencies, "snowchismo". But he's just jealous because he was born in zone 9 and grew up in zone 6. He don't know from snow.

      Delete
  14. Ah, the hooded mergansers again. I see them often on my walks, usually in smaller numbers than the geese. Unlike the geese, though, they're very wary and always retreat further out into the lake. The distinctive coloration of the males make the females go almost unnoticed. I also see a blue heron now and then and the occasional pair of mallards. The geese are there by the score, even when the pond is frozen over.

    ReplyDelete
  15. So...it was 3 here this morning...

    ReplyDelete
  16. The photo of the sheep is hauntingly beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Currently -4 fahrenheit here in southern Missouri. Not really a place known for extreme cold. Having grown up in Northern New York I actually used to travel south to Saranac Lake each winter for hockey tournaments. It truly is a beautiful place! Locally in Missouri they also report a "feels like" temperature of -24 fahrenheit. I'm not quite sure how you determine such a thing. My best guess has something to do with measuring the sensation of inhaling deeply through the nose and feeling the nostrils freezing shut. Those who know, know what I am describing. Thank you for the work you put into the blog and to all the commenters for making this such a great place to check in on. -Jeremy

    ReplyDelete
  18. Breaking news...Texas, too, is actually holding February this year for the first time in memory. I woke up to half a foot of beautiful dry snow and nine degrees Farenheit. Hopefully the dogs will like it better than the glaze of ice that preceded it. It will certainly be easier to get around. The sky is the deepest blue imaginable. I hear the birds, chirping for my wife to bring them seeds. It isn't New England February, but for once it is close. I only wish that we could enjoy such weather without having to experience heat buildup in the north Atlantic disrupting the polar vortex from its customary circle.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Muffy,
    I hope a collection of books encapsulating the unspeakable beauty and excellence of Saltwater New England might appear.Thank you for creating and sharing this American treasure!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Currently 75 here in Palm Beach at 8:16 Friday morning. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated.