Brrrrrrrr — the Art of Winter

Winter has come to Texas. Now, all you Northerners may scoff and pooh-pooh the idea, but it's 30 degrees and rainy, and that isn't pleasant anywhere. Yes, I know it gets much worse elsewhere, and yes, by the end of the week it will be 50 and sunny. Great swathes of Texas winters can be lovely, like those December days when it's 60 and bright and everyone walks around saying "Now THIS is why we live in this god-forsaken climate." But it can also be grim and miserable and dreary, and you've got to remember our homes aren't built for this.

At least we don't get this:

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"February," Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413-1416

Check out the cat by the fire, and the women warming their legs.

And it's rarely this cold here:

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"The Hunters in the Snow," Pieter Brueghel, 1565

The hunters look so discouraged, and the dogs positively bummed.

This makes my hands cold just looking at it:

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Claude Monet, "Winter on the Seine, Lavacourt," 1879-1880

And while Van Gogh is primarily a painter of the summer, he didn't hang up his brushes in the winter:

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Vincent Van Gogh, "Landscape with Snow," 1888

It's rarely this bad in my neck of the woods:

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Everett Shinn, "Snow Storm, Madison Square N.Y.," 1898

I hope that poor woman is wearing long underwear, because the wind is blowing right up her skirt.

And while this is lovely, I'd rather look at it through a window with a cup of hot chocolate than be out in it:

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Ansel Adams, "Oak Tree, Snow Storm, Yosemite," 1948

Stay warm, friends.