Let There Be Light

Here we are, in the very bowels of February, and quite done with snow and ice and frigid temperatures, but its not over. The next several weeks are still “winter”.  How do we cope, how do we raise our outlooks and carry forth? 

One of the things that helps me is planting seeds.  There are lots of things that need a good deal of time to get ready for going outside. So, on my grow-rack are shallots and onions and celery.  Other things I start just to have them on hand, like arugula or sprouts.  Yesterday, I started nasturtium, just for the joy of them. I can eat the leaves as a peppery addition to my salads, but I wanted them for something else.  Big, round lush leaves, speckled with different greens and white splashes, perky flowers of white, orange and yellow. Delightful!  Why not?  And the scallions I just bought for my quesadillas; their white ends are in water growing larger roots so I can plant them and hold them over for a month before placing them in the garden. A few sweet potatoes are set halfway into damp soil and placed in a bright room. Potatoes too have been set out to sprout for planting next month.  

There are more things I can tend to that give me contact with nature.  Now is when I add potting soil to my houseplants and give them a weak feed.  There’s more day length and they are ready to get moving.  The Mandevilla (a flowering tropical vine) I brought in in the fall is reaching out in five directions and looking for spring.   I strengthen her now so she can climb my trellis vigorously in the spring.  Outside I watch the red branches of the peach tree, hoping for the swelling buds that show it is awakening.  Nothing yet, but I trim a few and bring them inside, along with some lengths of forsythia, and place them into a tall thin vase.  Within a few weeks, they will bloom and bring me a smile.  When the weather is not quite so harsh, I go out and uncover the chiminea.   Dried twigs and sticks are stored in the shed and are ready for just this reason.  I light a fire and pour a glass of wine and enjoy the heck out of it.  

I look and find that the daffodils are just poking out of the soil, doing that slow promising reach and wiggle they do before bestowing their gifts upon the winter weary.  It IS happening. We are on the way back and gaining daylight every single day.  And while this is happening, slowly but surely, I find whatever task, whatever solace I can.  So, I hope you’ll buy those flowers in the supermarket, or baby your spider plants and pothos, and think on growing a few things that you can eat or just enjoy in a vase, because maybe winter is hard and long and maybe we need to help ourselves through it.  Keep looking for signs, you’ll find them.                                                             

                                                                       By - Jenny Folk