We all know that without winter’s dim afternoons we couldn’t have summer’s brilliant evenings.
“Wabigokoro asks us to pay close attention to nature’s cycles of growth, decay, and rebirth, to follow the rhythm of the seasons as they ebb and flow. We all know that without winter’s dim afternoons we couldn’t have summer’s brilliant evenings. Sometimes though, as the days grow smaller and a sad but certain sense of rest envelopes the earth, it’s hard not to wish summer could last forever. The oaks and maples shed their leaves and give their mighty souls a respite from production. Yet deep into midwinter, we humans continue to churn through our daily routines, asking ourselves to muster up the same vigor we had during the long days of June.”
Robyn Griggs Lawrence (The Wabi-Sabi House: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty)
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Quote of the Day: Henry David Thoreau
That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.
~ Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
My simple pleasures on a cold winter day…
…a cup of coffee in a handmade mug
…freshly fallen snow
…the morning sun peeking through the clouds
…the little bits of color you spot occasionally during the winter
…the view of beautiful sunsets unhindered by tree leaves
…I can’t forget to mention warming up the bed with an electric mattress pad, it’s so nice climbing into a toasty warm bed! (we turn it off when we get into bed, it’s too hot to leave on all night)
What are some of your simple pleasures?
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Quote of the Day: David Grayson
I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day.
We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year.
As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays – let them overtake me unexpectedly – waking up some find morning and suddenly saying to myself: “Why, this is Christmas Day!”
Mr Chiots and I were talking about this very idea yesterday. When we woke up yesterday we were laughing that Christmas Day is just like every day for us. Since we both work from home we’re both here all day every day. We actually did take the day off and not do much work at all. We worked on our puzzle, went on a long walk, watched a Discovery show about the Ididerod, and made a delicious meal of homemade pizza. It was a wonderfully relaxing day, a perfect Christmas.
What’s your idea of the perfect Christmas day?
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Quote of the Day: Katherine S. White
“From December to March,
there are for many of us three gardens:
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the mind’s eye.”
– Katherine S. White
When I read this quote I just loved it. I thought about my three gardens. The garden outdoors is covered in snow, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is growing. I’ve got hoop houses protecting some greens and I just harvested some beets last week.
The garden indoors thrives all year long, but it’s even more lush in the winter. I have a corner of the basement filled with pots of herbs, fig trees and other tender plants. My living room looks like a greenhouse at the moment, it’s brimming with dwarf citrus and other tropicals as is the floor in front of my sliding glass doors in the dining room. I just bought a beautiful little jade plant at the farmer’s market last week for my dining room table. One of the things I love about indoor plants is that they help keep the air clean. No spending money on air cleaners.
The garden in my mind’s eye thrives after the holidays are over. I’ve been getting seed catalogs in the mail (is it me or do they come earlier every year, soon we’ll be getting them in August). I don’t look at these quite yet, I stow them away for those dark days in January.
I actually enjoy the down time winter offers for the northern gardener. I spend a lot of time during the winter months reading gardening books, learning more about organic gardening and soil buildings, dreaming of new plants while flipping through glossy gardening books and trying to figure out what new and interesting vegetables I’ll be growing this coming season.
How are you three gardens doing?
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Quote of the Day: Oliver Herford
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
– Oliver Herford, I Heard a Bird Sing
We put out a bird feeder in the winter, we really enjoy watching the birds come. We’ve learned to identify all the different ones that come to our feeder. It sure helps get through those long dark winter months. I also notice more birds in the garden throughout the summer when we feed during the winter months.
Do you feed the birds around your gardens?
