After the rush and crush of the the Christmas Season, now it's just us and the winter weather, the stillness that comes with less traffic, and the muffled sounds of a snowy day. There haven't been many snowy days this year , yet.
"As the days lengthen, the chill strengthens" a usually true old saying, so far also absent. Cloudy skies are the rule, and a sunny day brings all of the 7 spot beetles out of their hiding places, so far no one cares either. But it can't go on like this, even if I wish very hard, even if we all wish very hard, the winds will howl, the snow will fall and one will have cold feet again.
Trips down to the basement to put wood on the fire, into the solitude of it's 200 year old walls, the huge rubble-built hearth,now sealed up, the door to the root cellar, all it's modernity is hidden from me when I sit on the homemade bench after putting wood on the fire. Watching the flames dancing, I day dream of being of out standing in my garden. I wonder if the fire tenders who came before me had similar thought's. I hope so, I feel so. I am longing for the first blooms and the first tomato.
Watching the wood burning and feeling the room warming, knowing that the wood once was a living entity {I chose, this word intentionally} standing on the same earth as me absorbing the same life giving sunlight. May I always be this grateful for trees.
