Winter blues

Well, it's January, nigh unto the winter doldrums. I love the sweet sheltered feeling of a warm house on a cold night as much as the next person. I love hot soup, (anyone who reads this blog surely knows that) and hot bread, and oatmeal on chilly mornings. Winter has its joys, but right now, I'm missing warm weather. Maybe it's the seed catalogs I keep getting in the mail. Maybe it's the mung beans in the mason jar, reminding me how long its been since I saw something sprout. Whatever it is, I've got a doozy of a case of mid-winter melancholy.

Each year, Christmas comes way too fast: no matter how much time I spend on preparations, it's not enough. It comes and goes far too quickly. All of a sudden you wake up, it's January, and there's a sad anachronistic Christmas tree in your living room. The celebrating has all been done. There's no more carols to sing, no more stockings to hang, no cards in the mail. All that's left to anticipate is long, cold weeks with no punctuation, and somewhere far ahead, a glimmer of springtime. If I could change one thing about the calendar, Christmas would be in February. Two months between Thanksgiving and Christmas, plenty of time to savor the long, slow buildup of expectations and excitement. Does this sound good to anyone else? Maybe we'll start a movement.

How do you get through these ho-hum months of the year? Me, I'm off to research soup recipes, and plan my garden.

... and spend a few minutes laying in the sunshine with Olive. She knows how to beat the winter blues.