Winter is finally here - single digits on the thermometer, windows all iced in the mornings.  This is when I most appreciate the feather bed comforter given to me on Christmas by Paul and Helene several years ago.  It is a pleasant weight on the body, and holds the heat under the other two covers, making for a warm nest.  It makes me think of the squirrel nests that I can see so clearly now the trees are bare.  We have a big one in the back yard, mostly made of oak leaves, which do not deteriorate very easily. 

The squirrel's nest is called a dray and can be as large as two feet wide and a foot high.  In cold weather, like this, they share the nest.  January is also the mating month for squirrels - that's why you see them acting crazy in the roads.  (I use to think they were so cold it made them suicidal, but now I realize it is something else.)  On the internet they had a drawing of two squirrels sleeping in their cocoon like nest. This is how I feel.

Years ago my sister Diane gave me a "Bucky ( that's what we called our mother).  Anyway Bucky is filled with buckwheat, and you stick it in the microwave for two minutes and it is toasty warm.  That goes on my feet.  In only minutes, the featherbed has done its job and the bed is warm.   The warm bed, the fundador and the one or two pieces of candy, and you can't ask for anything more.  Nighty night, as Aunt Lillian used to say.