Winter

I have a friend who just loves winter. The colder it gets the happier she is. I love it too...but not that much. The fields of snow, just enough so the golden stalks show through, the forms of the trees etched upon the changing skies, and the sunsets that show through the trees all make the outside world anew. January is a quiet month, a time for preparations and resolutions for the coming year.

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A young student arrived at his painting lesson on our coldest day and announced that he wanted to paint summer, the beach, the blue sky and the warm breeze! Yes, it is a time for imagining the coming year, whether on the farm or in town. In January when the seeds are all tucked under the ground- safe in the earth, we go over seed catalogues happily picturing...no, that sunflower isn’t tall enough, we have too many dark colors for the flower field! This is when there is time for dreaming, imagining all of the possibilities later on in the year.

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When many people lived on farms before the middle of the last century, the winter evenings were long; farmers worked on their equipment, farm animals stayed in warm barns, farm wives mended and knitted, Abe Lincoln studied geometry by candlelight. It was time to absorb what

was happening...and not happening. People went to bed early and slept longer (not so bad).

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When February appears, even now, we sense, it is time to get going. Things are speeding up. Snow melts, we may get one more snow storm, but the springtime will be calling us out again.

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Until Next Time,

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Your Friends at Crossroads Farm