The snowpack is finally low enough to not swallow up our children, and temperatures have finally risen enough to not risk frostbite and hypothermia in our little ones.
It’s been the winter of too much snow and subzero temperatures, which has forced us to remain indoors more than we would’ve liked.
Finally, it’s time to play.
The winter edition of Seasons magazine is now available for your reading pleasure.
If you don’t subscribe to Seasons, the magazine can also be read online, including my column, “The Last Word,” which can be found on the last page of the magazine.
For the winter edition, I write about how real men don’t use snow blowers and my unique means of clearing my driveway of snow in the winter.
A friend sent me this pen and ink drawing from circa 1620 by the artist Hendrick Avercamp and purchased by King George III. It’s kolf. Golf on ice.
Which, of course, is amazing.
There’s actually some scholarship on the rise and fall of the kolf (and it’s sister sport, colf), which was apparently (and stupidly) replaced by billiards as the preferred winter sport.
Living in New England, our golf season typically ends in November, and it doesn’t start up again until March or April. For three to five long months, we dream about golf but are unable to play.
Enter kolf.
I sent these images to my golfing buddies, one of whom happens to live on a pond that’s perfect for kolf. He’s also an obsessive compulsive perfectionist, and he is already planning the course, which will include holes sunken into the ice and bunkers made from snow.
It will be cold, and it will be frustrating, but it will also be amazing.
I can’t wait for the pond to freeze.