This time of year used to be the reason I wanted to leave this country. That was until Ostravice. Everything changed in Ostravice. The snow was knee deep and the temperature was, indeed, unreasonable, but the beauty of the mountains and the way the whole place felt made winter a new thing, entirely.

Now, when the winter comes, I remember Ostravice, fondly, and welcome the cold, for a time, with the frost that fogged up my dashboard, the mud that turned to glass and the colors I could get out of it all with my trusty Helios 44-2.