Springing back to winter

After reading TC's blog this morning (Tim Cotton Writes ) I have determined to write an upbeat, positive missive here, even as I am only sipping on my second "cuppa" and contemplating my day to come. We have been having unseasonably warm weather; the ground has been bare for weeks now, or so it seems, and even the usually ubiquitous mud has all but vanished. It lingers only in the wheel tracks at the end of the driveway now. If we had ducks, there would be some in the poultry yard, but the new flock will not appear until the first of next month and it will be while after that before they live in the coop and have free run with the hens.

Yesterday we unexpectedly undertook a much needed digression into the closet. The intent of the foray was to install a locking mechanism to keep the cats OUT. In order to install the lock, we had to, first, get INTO the little room and in doing that we removed many bags of wool roving, representative of my former flock of sheep and some from UMO, their original home, as well. Now, I love to spin....  BUT if I did nothing else for the rest of my

Icelandic wool roving

allotted days I probably would die without completing the task, so this roving is now hanging out in the living room (aka craft room) waiting for me to divide it into at least one pound lots and offer it to friends as a share and possibly on the open market.  

With the appearance of spring outside the windows (though as yet no spring flowers have appeared) this might begin to feel like a job for another, colder season. But have no fear, our more seasonal temperatures AND precipitation will return this week and weekend, with a current prediction of nearly 7" of snow on Saturday alone. While that may not make all of you happy at the outset, just remember that we really do NOT want the overall temperature on our only home planet to rise.

So I will weigh wool and wind roving into balls that will hopefully be held together with a band of paper, at least long enough to get them bagged and away from the cats.

Amy and Kate

Trees Awaken, Warm the Earth

We act like the longer daylight and sun rising higher in the sky collaborate to bring us spring but I think not. I think they only wake the trees. Like many of us who can, the trees pull their energy inside, tucked down deep in the earth's constant temperature zone and, eventually tucked in by a fluffy white blanket -- as I am 'neath my warm down quilt -- they slumber.

But now and the sun rises earlier and earlier, they begin to awaken. Does their internal temperature rise as they awaken, as ours often does? I think so. I think their blood, circulating with more vigor and warmth in their roots, as they begin to stir -- imperceptibly perhaps, as these standing ones are not known for visible movement -- is what begins to warm the land.

Is this not why, in an expanse of standing snow in my orchard or across the back field where only wild-planted trees and bushes live, around each tree, each bush is a circle of open earth?

Love spring? Thank a tree.