My plan for the day was to postpone my walk and whine about the weather – 9 degrees when I got up this morning, and the temperature hasn’t moved up since – as much as possible, at least until I looked out the kitchen window and saw a flock of robins in the crab apple tree.
Hiram and the kids gave me a short Charlie Brown tree for Mother’s Day a few years back. Like today’s temperature, it hasn’t moved upward since they planted it. However, it blossomed beautifully last spring, and tiny fruit hung from the branches all winter long.
The sight of the birds brings back an old saying Mom used whenever I got whiny about her supper menu, and I got whiny plenty often. “Hunger is the best seasoning.” Apparently, calorie loss due to today’s cold snap improved the fruit’s flavor because the birds are all picking the branches clean.
Which reminds me, I shouldn’t postpone my walk any longer. Waiting for the temperature to improve is futile so it’s time to bundle up and be grateful that the wind died down and the sun is shining. Maybe the cold is a blessing in disguise, and I’ll burn off a few of my extra California calories – if I can keep my hands off the teeny, tiny crab apples. After I walk four miles in the cold, they’ll look delicious.
