Figure 1 – Sunset, Salem Massachusetts, December 17, 2020. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

Winter is more than a season in New England. It is a feeling, a sense, and a mood. There is little light and the sky reflects a sense of brooding and foreboding. The City of Salem has a long history from its seventeenth century witch trials and hysteria to its heyday as a great seaport reflective of the magic wonder of the orient. And, of course, there is always Hester Prynne and the Scarlet Letter. All this churns in the western sky on a December afternoon after a snowstorm.

“There are many things in this world that a child must not ask about.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter