A Chilly Fourth Day of Christmas

After yesterday's storm I heard a neighbor running a sump pump, so some of Wilmette must be flooded. It was strange to see the snow disappear so rapidly! It was so windy last night, both our garbage pail lids flew into the yard. After yesterday's warm temperatures, on the fourth day of Christmas, winter is back--maybe. The picture above, Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap, 1565, was painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bruegel is considered the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century and is notable because he painted ordinary people rather than the nobility. Bruegel's painting are also important as visual testimony to climate change half a millenium ago. That period of cold temperature is known as the "Little Ice Age."