two day snowstorm – bleak
blankets this wide white world – Lo!
ruby red berries
Williamstown, Massachusetts 12/21/2008 Here in the
Northeast, it has snowed now for over two days, and while that does not
qualify for any record, the proximity of this storm to the Yuletide,
reminds some of us of Dylan Thomas's lines:
One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town
corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices
I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether
it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed
for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.
It is bleak and cold here. In my circumambulation of this town during the storm, I chanced upon some bright berries which contrasted gaily with the blankness.
Wayne Winterrowd, our botanical Vergil, identified the red delight as "Ilex verticillata, the native American deciduous holly, in the South sometimes called 'Possum Haw.' Ilex is the genus to which all hollies belong, including of course the evergreen American Christmas holly and the English holly, with shinier leaves, both much used in Christmas decoration..." To read more about this wonder of winter: Download Ilex
