Overnight, Nantucket received about six inches of snow. Mitchell House sparkles this morning and there is a hush on Vestal Street that only snow brings.
It makes me wonder what is must have been like for the Mitchells. Being inside Mitchell House while the snow is falling transports me to another time and I like to think about what it must have been like for them. Cold I am sure but even quieter than a normal day. William Mitchell was what one might call a mischievous Quaker – his children got away with things that most Quaker children did not. So I wonder if there were snowmen built in the backyard. Or what about snowballs being flung about by Andrew or Henry or snow angels or eating fresh crisp snow maybe with molasses or syrup on it? I am sure just as children of today, the snow provided the opportunity for expanded play albeit quietly and discreetly for the Quaker Mitchells.
But I go back to the snug, quiet, hushed calm of the Mitchell House in winter. Snow falling and piling up quietly outside, fire in the 1825 Kitchen as Lydia cooks the noonday meal, fire in the Sitting Room where the family spends much of its time in winter, and the calm and peace over Vestal Street as Mother Nature makes a wondrous quilt of white.
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