“The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.”

I've been thinking of Charles Dickens, who wrote, in David Copperfield. :

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

But I've been thinking of it in reference to the weather. Something like

'Daily temperature 35 degrees, no precipitation, sunshine, result happiness. Daily temperature 35 degrees, no precipitation, no sunshine, result misery."

It's amazing the difference the sun makes. The earliest birds have returned from their Southern migration and are beginning to sing. I"m told by Son of COG that a lot of the first ones to arrive are young males, who come early to establish their territory so they can attract a mate. They sing whether or not the sun shines - it's about sex and territory, not weather. But, when I hear them singing in the morning and the sun is shining, my heart lifts and I know that Spring is around the corner.

Today, on the other hand, has been unrelentingly grey and gloomy. Sheba and I took a long invigorating walk, but now we are back home and the house is dark and cold. The kitchen will soon be warm and bright, however, so that's where I'm going right now to make dinner.

The quote in the title is by Joseph Wood Krutch (pronounced 'krootch') who, according to Wikipedia, was an American writer, critic, and naturalist. He was born in Tennessee, taught at Columbia for many years, and then spent the last 20 or so years of his life in Arizona writing about nature. He seems never to have lived in New England, but he was right about February.