Winter has been in a big rush to get here this week. The frost on the rooftops of nearby buildings has been white as snow every morning. I hooked up the heater in the water dish and the birds come all day but the squirrel is the first one there each morning.

My friend Joy Yates, who lives in Minnesota, flies to Connecticut every few weeks, to visit friends and family. She still has the house in Monroe where she grew up. It is an enjoyable time each time she comes and we both have books to exchange. She is fond of birds and anything related to nature, so we have a common interest. When she stopped by this past week, she brought a sandwich bag with some special acorns to show me. Most acorns have a smooth brown shell. These are the same brown, but are lined with marks from stem to point which make them look like a small basketball. So now the hunt begins in the books of pods, cones, trees, etc, to find out what kind of oak tree they are from.

Even more different is a beautiful calendar of Minnesota she gave me. She was laughing about it being from a state I’ve hardly been through, but it is the features on this annual record of time that make it special.

The calendar is advertised as an “Environmental” calendar for 2001. It includes information on meteorology, phenology, and astronomy. A publication of the Freshwater Society, this has so much information on its pages that I spent most of an evening reading it all. Each month of the year is allotted three complete pages, including a beautiful colored picture, a weather guide, charts of several kinds, description of the photographs, and in the square of each day of the month, facts about the sun, moon, average weather information, and records about that date.

Every few pages there are “trivia” facts, such as “It takes 10 or 12 inches of snow to equal one inch of rain.” I learned that “97 percent of the world’s water is salty or otherwise undrinkable,” and that “nearly half a million people don’t have enough fresh drinking water.” The illustration on the June page is the beautiful showy pink lady slipper, the state flower of Minnesota.

Articles, short ones, are included each month by environmental specialists – barometric pressure, the aurora borealis, lighting, dew point and humidity, and all kinds of weather data. December’s photo is a close-up of a gray owl. Information for that month tells the reader it is the time white tailed deer begin to drop their antlers.

December facts caution that four inches of near-clear ice is safe to walk across and five inches is safe for snowmobiles, eight to twelve inches is safe for cars and small trucks. For each month you learn about constellations that are prominent. Two inches of new snow followed by a North wind will guarantee a white Christmas! The calendar’s last page is devoted to a glossary of weather facts – things like global warming, wind shear, Doppler radar, and many others.

There are literally thousands of facts in this wonderful calendar. I’m hoping someone will print a similar one for Connecticut; but in the meantime, I will continue to read and to appreciate the general information found in the Minnesota treasure from my friend Joy!

Cold but clear weather got Newtowners off to a good start for the holidays at the town festivities last weekend. Thank you Mr Weatherman.

The words ending the December 1st calendar is the final line from “The Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.

Who said, “It is not good to be too much alone, even as it is unwise to be always with a crowd”?