Saturday, January 28, 2012

January's end

 Looking back on my pictures of the cold, snowy weather we had, I no longer feel badly about not walking every day! Look at that snow, being driven along by a cold wind! Can you blame me?
 Especially when this was the scene inside-a nice, warm fire, with my favorite chair drawn up close to it.
 I spent my days reading by the fire, but some of us preferred to nap.
 When he wasn't napping, he was coloring or arranging his crayons (by color, if you notice) in various construction vehicles.
 Roasted salmon, which we ate by candlelight while the storm raged outside.
And, maybe, just maybe, I was beginning to feel trapped inside by the time the cold sunshine reappeared this week! This morning, the sunrise was beautiful, with streaks of pink and gold and purple coloring the wintry sky. A heavy frost lies on the grass, and even the hot latte I consumed has failed to warm my toes! We are ordering seeds for the vegetable garden, weighing the merits of different varieties of beets, carrots, tomatoes, and beans. Plans are being made to serve Italian sodas with homemade syrups at the store this summer, and diagrams being drawn as to how to rearrange the store to make traffic flow more smoothly. These plans make me excited for summer and the return of the farm season, and yet, I would still LOVE one big snowstorm this winter!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Resolutions

 One of my (actually my only!) New Year's resolutions was to try to walk for at least half an hour each day.So far, I have not done very well. The weather has either been really cold, or pouring torrents of rain. We did have a few cold, sunny days in the second week of January which made keeping that resolution easy. The weather was beautiful. The farm children loved walking across the frosty yard.
 It is also fun to see seed pods and the last few frozen flowers. We could also see several nests in the leafless trees.
 The frozen fountain provided lots of amusement. The girls tried hard to break the ice, but it was frozen pretty solidly,
We ended our walk by checking in on the strawberries. The colors of the leaves are so pretty this time of year, and the plants look really healthy. Even though we are enjoying these winter days, I fund myself longing for warm, ripe strawberries! Summer seems so far away! I enjoyed another walk today, but kept my head down against the driving rain. If I wait for dry days to walk, I will not be outside again until July!