Wintery Thoughts

I have cabin fever. I feel my body shifting into hibernating mode. It has been years since I've experienced this phenomenon. At one point my family lived in Wisconsin and winters were serious business there. I remember the year that the sun did not shine for 100 days. I learned what cabin fever really was that winter as I awaited the birth of my fifth child and my first four little sons did there best to make me crazy. But this winter I am reminded of those long dark days. We live in what is considered the south now. Winters in the past few years have been mild and fairly brief - just long enough for me to enjoy the cold crisp winds and to admire the snow for a day or two. This year the drifts along the curbs have been there long enough to get gray and grungy. I'm ready for spring!
I keep getting seed catalogs in the mail and I get carried away thinking of all the flowers I would like to plant when it is warm - I know that in reality I 'm happiest with flowers that grow without feeding or weeding! But I like to dream about a garden full of gorgeous blooms and fragrances. It's a good way to get through January!

I'm also dealing with the post-New Years resolution slump - you know where you realize that you must have been high on candy canes or something when you made that ridiculous list of plans for the New Year that now in the cold light of day seem presumptuous and preposterous. (What was I thinking? - who needs to fit into size 6 jeans, I don't like jeans anyway!) But I am very resilient. I will warm up with a big mug of hot chocolate, generously topped with whipped cream and I will pull out one of my favorite books, it's been at least six months since I read Little Women and I will make a list of flowers that I am likely to grow in the spring - like nasturtiums,
that don't need much in the way of attention other than admiring once in bloom. Then I will sing the song about Popcorn on the Apricot Tree, and In the Leafy Tree Tops and Give Said the Little Stream. And before I know it I will be suffering from the heat and the humidity of a southern summer and I will be singing Once There Was a Snowman and dreaming of winter.