Hoping "Woods Will Fill Up With Snow" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Please join me in welcoming Author Michele Rhem, who presents us with her poignant memoirs of the Rabbit Patch, where her diaries weave tales of a simpler, expressive life lost to many, but gathered together in her most familiar environs - the Rabbit Patch.

    I have spent the last several days waiting to watch the woods at the rabbit patch, "fill up with snow." The weatherman promised it - and we all believed it. By Thursday, bread was scarce in grocery stores. Everyone planned to cook beans and stews, including me. I planned to post a new picture of the rabbit patch, covered with snow - and I still may. The forecast called for about seven inches-I think we have two, at best. When there is any snow, in the southeast, we raise a ruckus. We are not equipped as my northern friends point out. Farmers clear backroads, like the one the rabbit patch is on. I have made a snowman, maybe a dozen times, in my life. I have never been sledding , but I have seen a field covered in the bright white of snow and I have seen the light of the moon on new fallen snow and I find both to be beautiful-and so snow is a grand event to me.

    I woke very early this morning to drink coffee and write while the snow fell. It was still dark, but I saw a good "dusting" and waited for more. The wind was blowing with a howling sound and there was ice on the bare limbs of the great sycamores. The pines looked like Christmas trees when the first light came, but the air was void of the precious snowflakes.

    I did put some birdseed out by the window at the morning table. Country birds do not depend on feeders as their "cousins in town"seem to-unless it snows, that is. Moon Shine sat by the window and watched, but did not seem tempted in the least. He is too civilized now for such things as feathers. He drinks cream from a bowl and naps on a soft blanket, in the company of Christopher Robin.

    It started snowing , in the afternoon, though the flakes were fine-some would say,"unimpressive". They still counted, to me. They may not afford me the chance , as Robert Frost said, " to watch the woods fill up with snow" nor to gather enough for snow cream . . . nor to build a snowman-but they counted.

    I made a trip to the wood pile and found the snow was too icy to even make a snow lantern. Cash raced around the yard unhindered by the notion, he could fall and break a hip. The light in the pump house was out, so I had to make another trip to replace that. Kyle and Christian opted to "get stranded" with friends and I didn't blame them a bit- til I needed wood and a light bulb.

    The wind chill is an unfamiliar temperature at the rabbit patch. It is a single digit , though they haven't said which one. The weatherman may have lost his confidence, after all. I know that my "winter coat" was not made for this weather and my footwear left a lot to be desired, too.

    The night fell early, but the wind does not sleep, it seems. Instead, it is "ripping and rearing" around the territory like it has an old score to even. I hope the rabbits are burrowed deep, for remember, they are southern rabbits.

    There is most of a moon tonight and the stars are shining their silver light -so the rabbit patch is especially lovely on this night in January. . .even if it was a light snow and a cold wind blew.