the shortest month?

February 23, 2015 ~ 5:15 p.m. ~ 16 degrees F

A couple days before that, on the 21st, a freezing rain left the trees coated in ice. 

Pretty.  But very cold and hard on the foraging creatures.  The deer are eating cedar trees because they can't get to much else.  

The pond was thawed out early in the month and some Canada geese flew in and looked like they were sizing up nesting places.  It made me hopeful for spring.  The pond is frozen again and the geese left.  Hopefully they will come back.

We've had some very cold days but not a lot of snow.  It has been much worse elsewhere.  My niece lives in Boston and gave birth to her first child in between blizzards.  Winter has brought about 8 feet of snow to that area this season.

Sorry I haven't had a lot to say lately.  Not much stitching is going on, partly because I'm having an eye problem that affects fine focusing.  I knitted a hat and am working on a lace knitted scarf.  The scarf is a very soft silk/bamboo blend.  I blocked the end to see how it would lay because it was rolling in on itself a lot.  I think it will block okay.  My eye doctor has referred me to an eye specialist in St. Louis.  They are going to "probe" the ducts that are supposed to drain tears, because they are apparently blocked.  I don't think it is a serious problem, but the idea of having a probe stuck into my eyelid is a bit frightening.    And so it goes...

unfocused

December 25  ~   Geese heading south

The new year has rolled in with jumble of conflicted feelings.  I'm feeling my own mortality and a sense of urgency but it is all so unfocused at this point that I'm not sure what to make of it.  I have that feeling of standing in front of the open refrigerator, hungry, but I don't know what I want, nothing seems just right.  So I am sitting with that for now, giving myself permission to let it be what it is.

We have had only a couple of very light dustings of snow this winter but there have been spells of very cold days where the daytime highs were only in the teens. And those days brought amazing sunsets.

I'm not having many thoughts to share right now, but I do have some sunsets.

January 5

January 5

January 6

January 6

January 17

January 17

winter solstice

The shift.  And the return to growing light.

The solstice brought a beautiful sunny day in a sea of very grey days.  But weather has been mild after a November plunge into the very cold.  Last year the pond was frozen solid by now.  I'm grateful for the reflections and the wind on the water.  And I'm grateful that the days will lengthen now.

I've been wordless and unplugged for a bit.  Thank you for your companionship and comments through the past year.