The Color of Winter

By Pat Gibson

Back in the 60's I went to college up in Wyoming. (I know now you can figure out how old I am, I'm not afraid.) One of the staff of the dorm I lived in was a woman from Austin who was working on a doctor's degree in education. She always wore very bright winter coats. They were vivid reds and yellows when the rest of us wore dark blues, greens and grays. I complimented her once on her coat and asked why the vivid shade. She said that the winters in Texas were gray and dreary. That they didn't have the snow of the north and she wore the colors to cheer everyone up.

Now I've lived here above Sulfur Creek for nearly 13 years and around the Hill Country for 16 and I would never call our winters dreary or colorless. We have more rain than snow and we don't have the distinctive fall of the northern parts of the country, but we are not lacking color.

Winter cypress trees along Hamilton Creek.

Five days a week I drive a school bus out along Creek Road then up Holder Lane across 290 and out to Windy Hills. As the sun is rising, I get to see lots of the country side. Along the creek, the grass is still green but edged in tall dried grass. Some of that grass dries out a buff or light tan color and some is a deep rusty red. The red grass has tall stalks with fluffy tufts on the top and the grass at the base is curled and twisted. The tan grass curls and twists in puffy mounds and even on still mornings it looks as if it is moving.

The cedar trees are dark green or flocked with burnt orange pollen. Occasionally, they will sit in groves that are so dark they look like cave openings. The sycamore has lost its leaves but the creamy white and gray of its trunk contrasts with the shadowy cedars. Occasionally the leaves will cling tenaciously to the tree and give spots of red to the skyline.

The other bare trees are shades of gray or black making smoky lace across the hillside. The live oak still sports its gray-green foliage and it contrasts well against the gray of the short grasses on the hills.

No, I would never call out Texas winter colorless, subtle and soft, yes, but not colorless.