Winter is a time of promise because there is so little to do — or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so. – Stanley Crawford, A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm, 1992

In winter-time visions of Spring and Summer are conjured at will by poets… – Helen Rose Anne Milman Crofton, My Kalendar of Country Delights, “Prelude,” 1903

Our destiny often looks like a fruit-tree in winter. Who would think from its pitiable aspect that those rigid boughs, those rough twigs could next spring again be green, bloom, and even bear fruit? Yet we hope it, we know it. – Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Travels, translated from German

One faire day in winter makes not birds merrie. – Witts Recreations: Selected from the Finest Fancies of Modern Muses, with A Thou