The advent of the winter season is almost upon us, embodied by the pinecones dangling from a neighbor’s evergreen. Happily, this scene doesn’t so much remind me of the coming winter, but rather the coming spring. When Andy and I first looked at our home, it was around March, at the very end of winter. Some snow was still on the ground, but as we toured the backyard in the dark of an early evening, we saw the pool, and this evergreen rose dimly behind it.
We see the tree at all times of the year, but it’s most prevalent in the summer, when we are out and about in the backyard. Throughout the winter, we watch it from the windows, waiting for spring to give a hint of itself in an early thaw or a wayward warm breeze. When I see it now, it gives me a little bit of hope, reminding me of that first spring when a new house started to take shape as a new home.
