Has the early winter snow come to stay, or will we be blessed with a January thaw? The 10 inches that fell on our bluff in mid December has melted on some sunny slopes, but has hardened to ice and crust elsewhere. I enjoyed skiing, alone and with family and friends, at least half a dozen times in December, but when I tried it on New Years Day I careened uncontrollably down an icy slope until I hit a pile of cedar brush. OK, enough of that until fresh snow falls.

Having the world encased in ice is tough on my four-legged and feathered friends. The colder the day, the more frantic the activity at our bird feeders. We have scores of house finches and a few golds and purples, juncos, various sparrows, bluejays, cardinals, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, nuthatches and one flicker that flits past on some other errand.

The deer seem almost tame when they come for the handfuls of corn I toss on the frozen snow, though on a recent evening their abrupt scattering caught my eye; A sleek coyote was trotting down the creek bank below the house, and though he likely harbored little hope of dining on venison, the deer weren’t taking chances.

Meanwhile, the January sun reaches deep into our solar home, and without burning fossil fuel, or solar energy stored more recently in the cells of oaks and elms, we live in comfort, warmed and sustained by the ultimate source of all renewable energy and power. Yet, for ultimate comfort, when the sun goes down I’ll likely throw a couple of logs in the stove.

—Jerry