Yesterday I had a lengthy conversation with a thirtysomething Englishman about the history and architecture of his native land. Though he works in a camera store he's something of a history and culture buff and we had a fine time talking about English countryside and architecture. I said I have a mental picture of England from novels and movies. Many of the images involve dampness and chilliness on fall evenings: people going for walks in crunching leaves, heating kettles for tea, pulling books off shelves, enjoying conversations by fires.

Those scenes, in fact, are ones I identify with from bygone times in the eastern U.S. and Canada where damp and chill come every fall. Here in Calgary, chilliness, then coldness, comes, but dampness not so much. Today and tomorrow, however, temperatures are to drop while wet stuff falls from the sky. It will be about the way it feels in western Pennsylvania in late November--the way it felt when we'd visit my Uncle Bob's house in Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving. Because of the unpleasantness outside, we enjoyed the snugness all the more.

Nasty weather, in other words, has an upside. It's easier to take, of course, when you've just had a stretch (as we have) of unseasonably warm weather. In any case as I look out at the grayness, with rain and snow in the forecast, I feel contented. A good day for getting things done indoors--and for being thankful I have an indoors to be in at this moment.