Winter

by Dallas Lore Sharp

You want no gun, no club, no game-bag, no steel trap, no snare when you go hunting the snow. Rubber boots or overshoes, a good, stout stick to help you up the ridges, a pair of field-glasses and a keen eye, are all you need for this hunt,—besides, of course, the snow and the open country. You have shoveled the first snow of the winter; you have been snowballing in it; you have coasted on it; and gone sleigh-riding over it; but unless you have gone hunting over it you have missed the rarest, best sport that the first snowfall can bring you. Of all the days to be out in the woods, the day that follows the first snowfall is—the best? No, not the best. For there is the day in April when you go after arbutus; and there is the day in June when the turtles come out to lay in the sand; the muggy, cloudy day in August when the perch are hungry for you in the creek; the hazy Indian Summer day when the chestnuts are dropping for you in the pastures; the keen, crisp February day when the ice spreads glassy-clear and smooth for you over the mill-pond; the muddy, raw, half-thawed, half-lighted, half-drowned March day when the pussy-willows are breaking, and the first spring frogs are piping to you from the meadow. Then there is—every day, every one of the three hundred and sixty-five days, each of them best days to be out in the live world of the fields and woods.

Genres: Nature, Science

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the beginning chapters of this book; the beautiful descriptive passages, the lists of things to do, see, and listen for in the winter.

The chapters were long, and while my kids listened politely, I knew they were finding it tedious. Even I grew tired, though we only read from it once or twice a week.

Chapter 9 was overwhelmingly evolutionary and we ended up skipping most of it.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely little book. I love the spaced out chapters of what to do, what to see, what to hear, etc. throughout the winter, intermingled with highlights of animals to keep a lookout for during the season. I would recommend it for anyone who struggles to see the beauty or enjoyment of winter (a category I firmly fit in).

Sharpe's love of nature shines through, although I often wondered if Mrs. Sharpe was afforded these same quiet, refreshing ambles through the nearby woods or if she was too busy with the house and children.

" Winter within us means vitality and purpose and throbbing life; and without us in our fields and woods it means widened prospect, the storm of battle, the holiness of peace, the poetry of silence and darkness and emptiness and death. And I have tried to show that Winter is only a symbol, that death is only an appearance, that life is everywhere, and that everywhere life dominates even while it lies buried under the winding-sheet of snow."

[Sarah B · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The trouble with those who say they hate winter is a lack of knowledge. They do not know the winter.; they never tramp the woods and fields in winter; they have no calendar of the rare, high-festival days of winter." What a sweet little book that reminds me to get out and enjoy winter, to get to know it a little better.