Dusty solstice

22 12 2025

Dust on winter solstice? Sure. Because we haven’t had a drop of moisture since the very beginning of the month.

High temp of at least 64F (second day in the 60s after a week in the 50s)? Sure, let’s pretend it’s autumn. And it has been warm enough – and windy lately – that most mud is mostly dry. (See that white spot at far left, though? That’s a patch of snow.)

It’s hard to deny how beautiful the weather has been. … It’s impossible to not start the usual worry about how a terrible (dry) winter will lead to an awful growing season.

Yesterday (see above, Aiyanna following the band down to water on a dusty trail) was winter solstice, the beginning of winter (and now lengthening days), “a promise that the light always returns,” I heard recently. Can we amend that to the start of the season when the snow replenishes the soil and vegetation in anticipation of the coming year?

Please, please, PLEASE, Santa, Mother Nature and Old Man Winter, bring us snow this winter!

Let it snow, let it snow, LET IT SNOW! 🙂