Sunday, January 1, 2017

Starting afresh...

And so, a new year begins. Somehow, it has become 2017.

This morning we woke up to the remnants of a few ice pellets that came down last night... seeing white on the ground for New Year's Day is something I have not seen in a really long time... perhaps not since I lived in Denmark as a child.

Thinking about my childhood, and walking around through fields and woods during this fallow time of the year... the colors then were as they are now; some green but mostly shades of gray and brown as things lie dormant.

Nature is alive, but not growing.

Around the garden, our resident mole seems hell bent on causing ongoing disruption in the labyrinth! Of all the places it could dig its tunnels, it chooses the labyrinth. Oh well...

Meanwhile, one of our forsythias seems to think it is spring-- a few yellow flowers a peering out. Reminds me that here in the Northwest we seldom see much of a really "hard" winter. Can't say as how I mind. The relative maritime mildness allows us to grow all sorts of things here, even though we are about as far north as you can get and still stay in the continental US.

The "microclimates" here never cease to amaze me. Just a mile up the road, there's actually a good layer of snow and ice on the road into town. Here? Just a few thin patches of white...

Well. One can but hope this will be a better year than 2016!