We still have snow, and plenty of it.

A week out of school, days home from work, the slow, easy rhythm of 'down days' at home, cloaked in a blanket of snow and ice.

The mail didn't run for days!  It's ok... noone wanted to stand out by the mailbox and wait.

We stayed in the house, when we didn't have to be out feeding up the critters, or when we weren't feeling punkish at having been housebound and needed a walk.  We read and and cooked and napped and ate, and knitted ...

*I knitted, the men folk did not knit and the puppy unknitted a cap for me.

We read some more... I organized a bit (one of  my resolves for this year) and netted a bag for Goodwill, two bags for trash and recycling and found some patterns and recipes that I'd temporarily misplaced. (Ok, so they were MIA for 2 years, you caught me!)

I read some seed catalogs... that gardener's January dream.  I actually feel asleep once, warm pup in lap, seed catalog open to the heirloom tomatoes... not a bad dream for a snowy winter day.

Frozen fennel, beautiful in it's own right, reminded me to spend some time on the herb garden this year.  26 years ago, the herb garden was my very first ever Mother's Day gift from my husband... a gift that has given so many flavors and depth to life, much like the little girl that joined us.  Few days go by that I don't run out and grab some rosemary, or thyme.  Dreaming of summer basil right now, I can almost smell it.

The fields that were pasture, which are no longer needed for pasture, are being planned for our 'next round' of orchards.  Many of the fruit trees that were planted when we were married were dwarfs, with relatively limited lifespans and few remain.  Orchard Round II will be heirlooms and standards.

Massive cedars, towering majestically in the snow, make such awesome natural Christmas trees, that it makes me wonder anew why in the world we go to all the effort of late December... a few short days brought us the natural beauty.  This snow was particularly light and fluffy on the initial fall, and we escaped the heavy icing of so many winter storms, thereby retaining our electrical service.... for which I am grateful!

The sculptural beauty of the crepe myrtle is season-less, the smoothness of it's bark wrapped in a blanket of snow.

My smallest walking companion would give it a go for a while, but when she got the shakes, she hitched along, in the warmth of my jacket, little feet safe from the cold and ice.

Enough already... spring can't get here fast enough!