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February is our winter\u2019s heart, a frozen,\nunyielding core, a sentence of 29 bitterly cold days, one day more this year\njust to test our endurance. Winter\nis our first full season here, the hardest one in a generation, with more snow\nand colder temperatures than many Georgians can remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
November\u2018s early snowfalls were freakish and unwelcomed, but they barely dusted the trees and hillsides and soon drained away with the rains that followed.\u00a0 Those first snows were the topic of much conversation and reminiscing about snowy days long past; it snows so rarely in Tbilisi that the occasions are memorable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then came December, with a great fall of\nseveral inches. We woke to a white\nand silent world on a Sunday morning and joined families with delighted children,\nwalking and playing in Vake Park, wondering at the profound event and enjoying\nthe hush and drift of the flakes, the softly piled trees, all the muffled\nshapes and sounds. It was a\nmagical day and then Monday was sunny and by Thursday even the grey slush had\ngone from the streets and walks; the magic became a memory to be recalled\nsometime in the future, on another rare day of snow in Tbilisi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
January followed the book\u2014our guide book,\nwhich told of an average winter temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit\u2014and lulled\nus into believing we\u2019d seen the worst of winter. As day after dry, sunny day unfolded we used our fireplace only\nwhen we had dinner guests, to add charm to the living room, or on weekends for\na cheery place to read, or to make a special occasion of the odd weeknight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the first of February brought snow,\nfollowed by more snow, until we lost count of all the mornings we woke to still\nmore snow sifting out of colorless skies. \nTemperatures dropped and the snow remained, and the cold held on and\non. I brought in wood every day\nand lit the fireplace every night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n