WINTER'S COMING--HOORAY!!!

I am not crazy. Regardless of comments made by my dear friends, my mind is sound. But I love winter.

Tonight I'm in Kauai and I've just e-mailed final revisions for my book, TARGET (April '07) another Pointe Judah book. It's hot here, when the monsoon isn't gushing all around the house in a solid curtain I can't see through. Ooh, luverly stuff.

When the sun shines here, the beauty is almost indescribable. Skies so blue they hurt the eyes. A few puffy white clouds. Deep green, wooly mountains that knife in folds down to the sea, and that sea--oh, the sea, turquoise with splotches of purple and lacy foam running onto the beaches.

Spectacular.

But let's get back the rain, or the monsoon as I call it. There is no feeling quite like sitting on a second story deck, beneath a very deep overhang, surrounded by palms and fruit-bearing trees while rain sloshes down, vertical, powerful and bearing memories of so many winters past. And no, it's not winter here. But that doesn't mean I can't summon one up when I need to.

I grew up in the South of England where the rain meant buzz cuts should have been mandatory. Hair inevitably looked damp and lank. And the wind, whew, the wind. I used to walk through my hometown, always by the same route because I'm directionally challenged, and go around the corner at Fortes' Ice Cream Parlor. When the wind blew it's best efforts at that spot I had to hang on to walls and be prepared to get tossed backward,only to force on again.

That would make me laugh, just as walking in the rain with the inside of an umbrella actually sitting on my head made me laugh. The sound the rain made on the umbrella echoed in my ears and sounded like a snare drum. There was a drawback to that--I couldn't see anything but my own feet and the circle of sidewalk immediately beneath the umbrella. Some of my collisions were notable.

How odd, you say, to be in Hawaii thinking about winter. Not at all, that's what imagination and memories are for--conjuring up pictures and sensations whenever one wants to, and wherever.

In truth I don't do heat. Beautiful flowers and trees and all the sights here, bring me back--the scents are irresistible. When I go home I long to take a hibiscus plant with me, or a plumeria tree, which would be cruel because they wouldn't grow where I live. But I do think the flowers would look pretty with snow on them.

Speaking of snow, I'm glad I never got over the thrill of watching those first flakes fall. Icicles on bare trees, thin, thin snow painted on the every tiny limb of a deciduous tree--yum. When we were children, we didn't have central heating or double glazing and night after night in winter, Jack Frost visited. What a talented artist he was. He painted magical pictures encrusted with ice splinters on every window. If I awoke early enough I could open the curtains and gaze at those paintings.

I've had Christmas in New Jersey when our car got snowed in for two weeks. We wore every sweater we owned, one on top of the other and walked to church on Christmas Eve through a wonderland where every house glittered with lights. We hadn't been married a year then and money was something we'd heard about. But that was the best Christmas.

And I've had Christmas right here on Kauai, on the beach. Sliced turkey, cranberry sauce out of a jar, a bought pumpkin pie and little gifts we scrunched up in bright paper. Very special, but not the way Christmas is supposed to be (for me), cold, probably wet, and with a fire in the fireplace. Just the pleasure of being with family.

I didn't intend to wander off into Christmas. All I wanted to say was that I love winter and I can smell it in the air back home. Millie, my dog, smells it. She lifts her nose to the wind and sniffs the scents of fallen leaves. There's a sense of the natural progression of life through the seasons. An order. And the pleasure I feel when I step inside my house and feel warmth makes me content, and very grateful for my blessings.

All the best,

Stella

Please share your favorite time of the year and what makes it so special for you. Are you a rain lover or a sun freak?