The Quiet of Winter Is Fading
I live in a house in the city of Chicago. It’s a small, older house with a little front yard with a huge evergreen tree in the middle of it. I moved into a house so I would have no shared walls and could make music anytime day or night.
One of my favorite features of the house is the fact that because it is set back from the road (behind a three-flat), on an alley, and flanked by houses on either side, it is very well buffered from typical city noise. My default sleep pattern is sleeping from 2:00 am to 10:00 am, and my biggest peeve in general is unwanted noise. Low noise means I can sleep in without being disturbed, which I love, especially on weekends. I am very protective of my undisturbed sleep!
The last week or so, I’ve begun hearing the different songs of birds from the evergreen just outside my window in the morning. Though its branches are still snowy, the birds know that spring is just around the corner! And though when I am trying to sleep the chirping annoys me sometimes, I am very aware it’s not the worst alarm clock one can have.
Their songs are flashing me forward to spring and summertime. I am imagining in saturated detail how I will feel, the easy summer clothes I will wear, the biking and tennis, walking and swimming, long sunshine days, fresh fruit and pitchers of iced tea, completely different mood.
Chicago Winter and Chicago Summer are two different planets. And I feel lucky that I get to live on both of them.
And now, some pictures from this winter!
In my neighborhood:
Near a bus stop at Lawrence and Kimball:
The carpet of snow just outside my door the morning after a heavy snowfall:
The Texas sky in winter, at my parents’ house in December, where they have old, old pecan trees all over the place:
