winter still
Winter showed up, as expected, covering the ground with a thick blanket of snow. Snuggled inside the house with a hot cup of tea, I quietly looked out into the strange landscape, a blend of snow storm and wind driven fog, its milky atmosphere so thick it reduced visibility to only a few feet. From this eerie cloud that melted into the ground pulling and swirling like translucent taffy, snow kept sifting down, first icy and windswept, then thick, serene and fluffy, then windswept again.
The chill set the watery blanket into its surroundings and for a few days everything looked frozen in place, totally still.
It’s warmer now, and most of the snow already melted, except a few shady patches on the north side, but I know snow will visit again, and thankfully so. There is good moisture and protection in it for the plants, who, even when asleep underground, are very much alive. Mother nature never lets us forget the natural order of the seasons, and winter is the season for cold weather, rest and renewal. So, I’m resting and renewing.
Of course with the predictions of Punxsutawney Phil only two short weeks away, I’m not going to question the inspired wisdom of the famous rodent on whether or not we’re going to have six more weeks of winter, I just want to point out that if it’s February, it’s supposed to be cold, and, just looking back on the last ten years, when did we ever see spring before April, like, ever?
That being said, I engage, pleasantly if not enthusiastically, in “winter gardening activities”, words I can never put together in a phrase without a chuckle. That usually means getting lost in daydreams about gardens in bloom and swooning over beautiful pictures in landscaping books.
It’s too early for nursery catalog orders and the garden planning for spring was done in the fall, as was the cleaning and storing of tools and supplies. If I learned anything in twenty years of gardening, is the art of patience and the wisdom of waiting on activities until their time has come. The garden always does.
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