It always happens at night. You go to bed under a grey sky and wake to a valley with the volume turned down — the river muffled, the road gone, the peaks suddenly closer.
The house changes with it
Winter is when the fireside earns its name. We stack the woodshed in September — larch and beech, split small — and by December the first fire of the season is a small ceremony. The stone chimney holds warmth long after the flames settle.
What to do when it snows
Honestly? Very little, and that is the point.
- Walk to the river before anyone else has marked the snow.
- Take the sauna hot and the plunge cold.
- Cook something slow. The kitchen window frames the storm better than any television.
The plough passes at dawn and the road is never closed for long. But most guests, once snowed in, quietly hope it stays that way one more day.