According to the calendar, winter does not officially start until December 21. But for me, the season always begins in late October, when days grow short in the Pacific Northwest and the rain moves in.
Out here, we’ve all developed our own tricks to get around the dark. A few years ago, I convinced my husband to put up our holiday lights right after daylight saving time—small, white bulbs strung across our porch, along with corresponding sets framing the archways inside the house. A timer turns them on every afternoon at five. It took some convincing; it seemed to him like we were on a slippery slope toward never taking down our holiday lights at all, but I told
