HILLSPEAKING
from The Anglican Digest
PENTECOST A.D. 2005

THis past season was not a “hard” winter; it was a fickle winter.  Mother Nature played fast and loose with the Ozarks in general, and Hillspeak in particular.
 
We did not have the hurricanes of Florida nor the tsunami of south Asia nor the blizzards of the Northeast. What we did have was a thermometer that went up and down like a yo-yo. On a Sunday morning it read 8 degrees at eight o’clock; two mornings later at 8 o’clock it read 40. Most of the winter was like that. It not only kept us mere mortals off balance, but it effected the plant life as well. In the first week of January a forsythia bush close to the Old Residence put forth a few blossoms—and within a day or two they were frost bitten.
 
We Hillspeakers did not know from one day to the next whether we should wear a parka or a polo shirt. There were shirtsleeve days aplenty through the Twelve Days of Christmas and Epiphanytide. And there were days that called for the full regalia of winter.
 
Godfrey and the Hillspeak cats were about as confused as the rest of us. About the time Godfrey found a nice comfortable patch of snow to sit in as he surveyed his realm, it would melt. The cats could sprawl out in the sun on the blacktop one day and a biting cold wind would ruffle their whiskers the next.
 
Only the birds seemed undaunted by the changeableness of the weather. They flocked to the birdfeeders even when the wind was whistling so that they had to maneuver to make a landing. They gathered around the icy birdbaths patiently waiting for somebody to remove the ice and refill them.
 
My 33 winters at Hillspeak have all been interesting, and, quite truthfully, most of those winters have been very much like the one I just experienced. There have been occasional winters when the temperature dropped below zero. There have been winters when the snow covered the ground for several days in a row and icicles bedecked the houses and trees. On the whole, however, winters are mild with a little snow that does not last long.
 
If the roads are not iced, winter is a good time to visit Hillspeak. You are welcome any time, but call and ask about today’s weather before you come.



©SPEAK, INC
805 CR 102 - EUREKA SPRINGS AR 72632-9705
PHONE: 479-253-9701    FAX: 479-253-1277       E-MAIL: speak@speakinc.org


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