SH’VAT MHW 2
Winter is the slow time of the year. The trees are as bare as they were two weeks ago, the grass has the same spots of weak green where the dogs have peed and pooped on it, the squirrels seem less active as do the deer. It is cold and everything kind of feels like it is waiting.
That’s not really true beneath the ground where we can’t see. A friend sent me a picture of a blooming crocus in some kind of microclimate around here and the other day I saw the beginnings of some daffodils pushing out of the ground (the stem, not the flower). We had two significant snowfalls last week on Tuesday and Friday, and by a week later, it hit 60 and yesterday it rained like crazy because the temperature was in the high 30’s, and then today it is back to feeling like winter because the cold wind is blowing.
I look at the trees and some of the red oaks are hanging onto their leaves longer than I’d expect, and the beeches of course still have all their leaves, though they are becoming more transparent with the week. My kale survived the lower temperatures and being completely covered in snow. It brought a smile to my face to see them emerge as the snow melted. To be clear, it got down to around 15, which is supposedly the limit of what they will tolerate.
I get that spring is coming. The light lasts longer, the witchhazel at the arboretum while it isn’t blooming yet is preparing to bloom and smells a bit sweeter than it did a month ago. But I’ve seen no evidence of skunk cabbage growth or any of the small weeds such as common violet on my lawn or forsythia. The deer have not yet dropped any fawns and the animals such as chipmunks, raccoons and skunks that spend most of the winter in their dens are still in them. It is still winter.
QUESTIONS
What is changing for you or in the world that seems to not yet be visible?
How, if at all, are you in synch with the season and the slowness?
Are you ancy for spring to come?