A Winter's Reflection

Traditionally speaking it makes little sense, but traditions being what you make of them, Winter Solstice feels like New Year’s to me.  There is just something about it.  Maybe it’s the lack of light and the depth of cold.  It could be because  I am a gardener at heart, and it is the halfway point between putting the garden to bed in October and starting seeds in February.  Or perhaps it’s that the Solstices and Equinoxes have always been the most important part of my spiritual path.  I don’t know, but Yule, for me, is an end to things…and a beginning. 

I find this day to be so much about reflection.  Time to sort through all that has happened in the past year, to reflect on my life and realize what is meaningful and worth keeping, and what I need to discard.  I don’t really do resolutions, but treat it as more a sort of winter version of spring cleaning for my mind. 

Winding down now, my day has been full of quiet contemplation, along with a few festive gifts and snacks.  It has not turned out exactly as I had planned or expected (case in point, as I type this it is thundering, which is not exactly the most winterish of things in southwest Ohio…), but knowing that this holiday is often about change, I can’t help but believe that all is as it should be.

So, as a part of my quiet celebration, my wish for you is a Blessed Yule, Happy Winter Solstice, and a Merry Whatever Winter Holiday You Choose.  Have fun and be safe, people!

Plotting, Planning, Pondering

Snowflakes, icicles, and the rustle of bare branches in the chill December wind…it’s beginning to look a lot like…...garden planning time.

 

I suppose it’s totally a plant geek sort of thing, but there’s nothing I love more on the most bitter of winter days than to dig out the new seed catalogs and daydream about the garden to come. 

 

And it does require an awful lot of planning.  You know that old saying, it seems everyone has heard it at some meal from a parent or grandparent over the years, about your eyes being bigger than your stomach?  I am pretty much constantly afflicted with the gardening version of that.  Can I grow enough beans for a few decent cannings, plus eight varieties of (multiple) tomato plants on the paltry 1/8^th of an acre my house sits on?  Probably not.  Will that stop me from trying?  Well…..it hasn’t so far.

I’ve no real idea yet of what I’m going to grow this year.  I have my favorites of course, the ones that after much trial and error have become garden necessities:

Royalty Purple Pod Beans, as gorgeous as they are yummy. 

Miniature Red Bell Peppers, quick growing, space saving, prolific, and the best tasting of sweet peppers.
Nyagous Tomatoes, one of the tastiest and most reliable black tomatoes I’ve ever tried.
Trifetti Peppers, the only fruiting plant that I grow entirely for it’s beauty, and how amazingly well its leaves press and dry.

 

Other than those few standbys, I don’t know.  But I do know that outside there is already a blanket of snow on the ground, temps that didn’t quite make it out of the teens, and yet another incoming weather advisory.  It is definitely time for a hot cup of tea, a snuggle up on the couch, seed catalogs, and the dreams of a sleeping garden.

When "Ends Justifies The Means" Gets Craftily Literal

I am a knitter from way back.  No, really.  My grandmother taught me to knit when I was eight and that was....well, it was a while ago, okay? 

I was always fairly quick with regards to the actual stitching, but I was also a kid with an insanely short attention span. The cool thing about that was, by the time I'd finally finished being (repeatedly) sidetracked, I'd have forgotten how to finish the project in question. Again. Which sounds bad (it wasn't), and also like I might've been doing it on purpose (I really didn't). So, I'd take my knitted whatever to my grandma's, ask her for help, and she'd use my project to show me how to bind off. And also sew in my ends for me. Which, looking back, might very well have been why I never paid much attention to the finishing thing in the first place. Because even then, and despite the fact that I already loved sewing, I loathed the working in of ends.

Which leads me to now. And my current project. And the utter insanity that has caused me to design something that has a hundred and fifty bajillion billion* ends to sew in. The project in question, I can't actually tell you about, at least not yet. I can let you look at the pretty yarn though!

 

Pictured, Pretty Yarn (lol)

Anyway, I always think about my grandma a bit when I am doing any crafting, knitting or gardening especially.  With this though, I've thought of her every time I've even looked at my project bag.  And the thing is, the thoughts and feelings that arise are usually nostalgic; sometimes happy, sometimes sad, often bittersweet...but that's okay.

What is less okay, is how much this project is making me really wonder about the difficulty of necromancy (or perhaps ghost raising).  Would it be worth the zombification of grandma to have someone else to sew in all these hated ends for me?
I'm beginning to think so.

*possibly exaggerated, slightly

Things I Learned About Blogging (While Avoiding Doing It)

1.  Writing posts in my head doesn’t get them onto the blog.

2.  It doesn’t matter if it’s only funny to me.  It’s my blog.

3.  I am never going to feel comfortable about what I post if I’m not being myself. 

4.  Although…..myself with slightly better editing is good, too.

5.  But, obsessive over-editing is incredibly counter-productive.

6.  Starting a blog while in a major depressive down-swing is a bad idea, too.

7.  When all else fails just post a damn picture.


I absolutely understand that as a first post/introduction/whatever this is probably a little strange.
I think I’m okay with that.

So…….hello.