Photographs from the months of December, January, February and March during the years 2012-2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the winter months, our planet slowly drifts towards the furthest reaches of its orbital path around the Sun who exerts just enough gravitational force to coax Earth back around one more time, lest we’re launched outward into the Solar System, starless and adrift. A steady shower of millions of individually designed crystal sculpted snowflakes create a soft temporary encasement enclosing trees, poles, wires, streets, hills and houses inside pillowed layers below. During some of those nights there is a heightened sense of stillness and quiet all around, as if the world itself was placed on mute. Lately in this part of the world (Northern Hemisphere, temperate mid-Atlantic, south of the Great Lakes North America), snow is less frequent and more ephemeral, disappearing within a few days most of the time. Rain and muddy paths, green grass and December flowers are now just as common in so-called winter as the more famous and expected snowfall, ice and frigid temperatures once were. Most nights are still cold, but more often than not, they are above freezing with a chance for foggy mornings along hilltops above and river banks and creeks below. Chance of clear roads and sidewalks are now much more common than the chance of snow. Who knows what winter will look like in ten, twenty, or even fifty years? How many more of those will I be here to see? How different will winter be for you, wherever you are, or wherever you are reading this from in the future? Winter is mostly still winter for the time being around here. Especially in this darkest of winters—the pandemic winter of 2020-21—where one can allow the darkness to offer a quiet and meditative respite where the ability to reflect and grow from recent experiences can only be hoped for and encouraged. EP January 2021 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania