Winter has already been too long! We are spoiled after two mild winters past. I still depend a lot upon the walker, so I don’t venture out very often in bad weather. The snow has gotten dirty in many places, and not much melting has been taking place since the big storm.

Saturday will be inauguration day and government officials will be taking over. We still do not know much about the President elect and his wife. They appear to have dignity and poise, and perhaps they will occupy the White House as a model family. We soon will be able to see what the new first family is like as they settle into their new home.

Suddenly the little yard out front is busy with more birds than have been around for two or three weeks. I suspect there has been a hawk that they have seen nearby. They acted weary and only flew in and out occasionally.

A friend passed along a bird magazine in which I found an interesting picture. Instead of a heater in a birdbath to keep the water from freezing, a picture was shown of a heated pet’s dish which was being used successfully outside. I will try to find one when I am able to get to the nearby pet store.

In another few weeks the mail will bring Valentines, mostly from the children. I have several bought ones I have saved from years past, but the best ones are the homemade ones we always made for family and close friends when the children were young. I have a wooden treasure box where the most special tokens are carefully preserved.

Until I retired from the daily newspaper, I had a big metal desk that housed all the folders and reports and information we might need. The biggest bottom drawer was a catch-all, a place where I saved anything that might be useful for school projects, craft sessions, or making Valentines. I usually put aside colorful pieces of cardboard; the silver or gold lining from envelopes; pieces of lace or red and white ribbon and other such treasures. On a snowy no school day in early February we got all the materials out plus the seed catalogue so the children could cut out flowers and we made Valentines for everyone. I usually bought a package of lace doilies and a package of heart stickers. The rest came via imagination. It was much more fun than buying a box of thin paper cards that are not very pretty or meaningful.

Phil Jones down at the Christmas Tree farm in Huntington has a wonderful collection of old Valentines. Several years ago Phil sent me an old fashioned antique Valentine picturing a very ancient typewriter. I get it out every year and fasten it in the window of the dish desk cabinet.

On February the second there is an old tradition that is much like our “Groundhog Day.” Early in the celebration of Candlemas, there was an agricultural belief wherein farmers regarded Feb. 2 as a prediction of weather. A clear, sunny day was one of the worst things to happen. “If Candlemas be fair and clear, they’ll be five winter in the year” was the rhyme that predicted poor weather by the 6th of January. It was also a tradition that Christmas decorations must be taken down. Not a bad idea!

The words that ended last week’s column were by Mohandas Gandhi.

Who said “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than to be crowded on a velvet cushion”?