The Rest of January

Once the snow melted, our month was everything that it should be. I love that empty fresh space that January occupies. It might just be in my head, but once I make it through the cluttered and busy holiday season and there are a few months yet before Spring gardening needs to happen, I feel light and free. I love the months when I can pause a little and regather myself.

Of course, now those empty months aren't so empty as they used to be, because I spend them preparing for the Spring Market in Nashville. But it's different, somehow.

After taking down the Christmas decorations, I left much of my usual decor in their boxes. My window sills are mostly bare, my mantle is sparsely adorned. With the big braided rug gone from the living room, I am enjoying a sense of space that is refreshing. My house isn't very big. Each room is *just barely* big enough for the furniture that occupies it. Add in a bunch of clutter, no matter how carefully curated, and I start to feel a bit claustrophobic. No more. At least until I open a few certain closets, that is...

I don't usually comment individually on my photos, but this next one needs a little special mention. It was taken by my 11 year old. I was de-lighting the tree, sorting through the strings, getting ready to box them up for another year. "Stop, Mama! Don't move!" he said, then snapped this picture. I love watching the creativity coming out in my babies. Didn't he do a great job?

In January

The new year comes, grey and cold.

I love the still months after the holidays, when the earth is sleeping, saving up energy for April. No long lists of gifts to buy, traditions to maintain, people to see.

January is when I get to take a deep breath.

Corners get dusted that grew a few too many dust bunnies during the busy season. Drawers and shelves and cubbies are freed from some of their hostages, kept for far too long. I have brain space to think, plan, strategize for the coming year.

It's all good, I tell you.

Farmboy yearns for Spring, itches for warmth and sun. But me? I like saving up energy along with the earth.

Greenhouse at Rest :: Backyard Conquerors :: Western Red Cedar :: Hidden Treasures :: Star Magnolia Bud :: Aim Carefully :: Lilac Buds :: Winter Sky :: Mourning Dove :: While She's Still Little :: Tiny Rainbow :: Most Winter Days in Oregon Look Like This

Lately

It has been unseasonably warm around here lately. We went for an entire week without lighting a fire in the woodstove. We did still have to use our central heating, but it was *just* warm enough that a fire would get the house too hot too quickly. I missed having a fire. Which is why I was happy for the rain and wind today.

I have finally put the last remnants of Christmas away, and even did a fair amount of organizing in my office/catchall room over the weekend. Somehow it is so much easier to relax and breathe when there isn't a massive mess hanging above ones' head (literally... the office is upstairs).

I also had my hair cut for the first time since July, and had someone out to tune and assess repair needs for my piano for the first time in probably 20 years... there were a few moments of thinking it was going to fall apart under the tuner's hands. What relief when it was discovered that there was a row of loose screws that tightened things back up nicely.

We are tentatively holding onto good health, with just a little sniffle or sore throat here and there. After our November full of doctor's appointments, I'll take a normal old head cold any day. The warmer days aren't helping in the health department though; along with way-too-early blooming flowers and bugs galore, there have also been a corresponding blooming of allergy symptoms. I'm praying for a good cold snap to settle everything down again. You East-coasters can feel free to blow some of that snow our way any time. Our landscape is very confused.

I have fun things to announce and show later this week (fingers crossed), so stay tuned!

Winter Branches :: Fluffy :: Dew Drops :: Out of Tune :: Kitty Love :: Hello, Son :: Match Made in Heaven :: Woodsy :: Stacked :: Elsa's Head Fell Off :: Forest Floor :: Spider Lace :: Mossy :: Blue :: A New Skill :: They Don't Look Angry to Me :: Bubbles :: Beams :: Buds :: Peek-a-Boo :: George and the Too Early Blooms :: Perch :: Look Closely :: Nearly Finished