Winter in Langley

2012 is off to a good wintery beginning fulfilling my wishes to cross country ski tour right from my house around our lovely seaside village of Langley, stopping along the way for quiet moments, meeting friends and enjoying our shops.  A surprising 4” of fluffy snow offered a respite from the usual hubbub for a leisurely start and time to connect with friends.  After attending to urgent business, I joined my sister for a stroll to the Langley Village Bakery for Biscotti and discovered a fabulous Marjolane with its layers of hazelnut cake, butter cream and chocolate ganache!  I was absolutely transported to Austria with its snowy winters and delectable pastries!  That also happens when I pop into the PS Suisse Bakery in the Langley Village, but that will have to wait until they are open at week’s end.

Returning home with a few winter storm necessities from the Star Store, we admired bare trees resplendent with snow outlining their arresting branches and were greeted with a distant honking as a flock of snow geese appeared, forming and reassembling their V, flying northwesterly to the clear, blue horizon. Catching up on client emails & listening to KUOW, Garrison Keillor shared the perfect poem, New Year’s, by Dana Gioia, ending with………..

The new year always brings us what we want
Simply by bringing us along—to see
A calendar with every day uncrossed,
A field of snow without a single footprint.

Wow! Serendipity. Wrapping up chores, checking to be sure friends made it home,  I layered on ski clothes and headed out to make tracks in the unbroken snow outside my back door.  Perfectly compacted and snow kissed, a lane offered sunny, snowy vistas over Langley, capturing icy blue Saratoga Passage framed by heavy, snow laden clouds, edged and broken by blue sky.  I stopped briefly to enjoy & snap the snowy scene & water views from the porch of the new cottage under construction in the Highlands at Langley for the new owners. Continuing, I skied open fields to Fairgrounds Road for a couple glides down & treks up before heading off to Noblecliff to check in on a snowbound client.  It was exhilarating to find some packed snow, snowplow broken snow and fluffy snow interrupted just intermittently by bare spots under snow laden fir boughs.  Ski touring, at home!! I am reminded of Annie Proulx skiing around her Wyoming Bird Cloud!  Fortunately only a few good citizens had scraped their walks & drives late in the afternoon!  Schussing gently down Camano and Cascade was perfect!

After catching up on tasks on foot in Langley, a Jagermeister seemed just the thing to compliment a perfectly crisp, starry evening and my romantic, snowy winter memories of back country skiing the Enchantments, Cascades,  Sun Mountain, Oregon’s  Wallowas and the Austrian Dachsteins with its cafes and bakeries along the way for indulgent layered cakes, Knoblach Suppe,  Gluwein and Jagermeister!  Better than I could have imagined, good friends Bob & Bern were among the few intrepids at the Prima Bistro, so good conversation combined with piping hot French onion soup and a soul warming Jagermeister.  This perfect gift of a day was topped off by a starry ski home to a driveway plowed by a friend new to the neighborhood—Ryan Haines—thank you!   Listening to Pink Martini, I am counting my blessings for this place, these friends, good health and the gifts that appear given time and space.

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http://www.primabistro.com/

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