Photo is one I shot on Friday while walking the dogs.
We have had lots of little bitty snow storms the past week, but this weekend it has been snowing a lot. I walked in it. I’m admiring it now, blowing past my windows, the sky gray and hostile, the wind bitter. Inside, the dog is snoring, the cat is carefully hatching a modem, and all of the book currently in my mind (there are always a lot of them) are lined up in the theater of my imagination waiting for their turns. They’re nudging and poking and trying out dance steps and costumes. “This one? Too much?” and speaking voices. I have a giant cup of coffee and the whole afternoon free to sit at the window in snowlight and enjoy the astonishing pleasure of writing.
I know it isn’t snow, but one of my treasured writing escape ideas is to go to Tofino for the month of Janurary sometime, watch the storms over the ocean from some cozy spot and write like crazy, drinking hot cider at night when I’m finished. Can you bring a dog over the border to Canada? I think I’d need my dog to come with me for that.
Do you have a favorite writing or reading weather? Or a place you’d like to escape so you could write and and write and write?
What a perfect picture.
Writing weather? Right now. It’s sleeting and dark and the coffee is almost done. I have my big wool socks on and my laptop is waiting.
You asked what others were reading. One of my favorite new finds is Garden Spells, by Sarah Addison Allen. Southern magical realism, and a lovely way with words. I am recommeding it with reckless abandon.
I love it right now, too–harvest-scented candles burning, caramel mocha coffee in the pot, Christmas lights strung along the balcony and, for just a few minutes, snow falling. I’ve been camping out on the bed, a cat either side, snug and happy. Right now I’m writing a Christmas-set story so it’s really helping.
But then there are summer nights when the night-scented tobacco opens and your body feels languid and you can just power through until 2am…
Oh, Susan! Yes, yes, yes to Garden Spells. One of the best books of the decade. (I am very proud to have her quote on THE LOST RECIPE FOR HAPPINESS.)
Gabrielle, aren’t you supposed to be leaving your garret for the sunny shores of Oz? (Not that I will quarrel with having a friend in paris, you understand!)
I wrote a ton this weekend and again this morning. We had buckets and buckets of snow.
I like writing while it rains outside. It makes me feel comfy to look through the window and enjoy the cloudy weather.
Sadly, I have yet to discover my writing place, as I write in wherever space I can.
Let me say your blog is a delight to be read and I’m glad I found it. Thank you!
Decided to stick around for a little while longer–turns out I love Paris! Especially the Christmas village down at Place des Abbesses with its mulled wine 🙂
My favorite writing weather is when it’s sunny and warm outside and I can be outside in it.
My two favorite writing places: sitting on the patio of the condo we occasionally rent in Santa Fe, in the morning with a good cup of coffee; and, in the Bahamas on Elbow Cay in Hopetown, sitting on the beach watching the waves roll in. If you’ve never been to Hopetown, you seriously need to go. It is just a great way to relax and get away. The beaches are usually empty, no one locks their doors and there are no cars on the island; people either walk or drive around on golf carts. Ahh – I’m relaxing just thinking about it.
For me, any kind of weather is good reading weather, but my favorite reading weather is when it’s cold and rainy or snowy outside and I’m sitting in front of the fireplace with a hot cup of tea and a good book.