Reading for a Cold Winter Day

It's cold here. REALLY cold. On days like this I wake up, scatter some bird seed out back and salute the birds that made it through the bitter cold night. It's amazing really when you consider their ability to live through such cold temperatures. Their winter days are then spent finding food and staying warm. All day. Every day. Amazing. Most of us live no similar experience.

Two books come to mind as I contemplate the cold and "the ingenuity of animal survival." First, Bernd Heinrich's Winter World is phenomenal and completely and utterly fascinating. Kinglet's, Hibernating Birds, Flying Squirrels, Subnivian Space...it's all there. I so recommend this book as a source of learning, but also a source of wonder.

And to appreciate cold - real cold...To Build a Fire by Jack London. It's a very short story found in our copy of The Call of the Wild and Selected Stories. This short story comes up more in conversation together than any other we've read.

Stay warm & well friends.

P.S. Part 3 of the Barn Wood Book Shelf coming with the return of warmer temps.