It’s rainy and raw over here in the mountains. We had some light snow, intermittently, over the past few days. We had snow on Christmas Eve, which was quite lovely, but it switched over to freezing rain by Christmas Day, and everything washed away. Then, the other night, we had just a bit of overnight snow, which the rain has, again, washed away.
The seed catalogs are coming in. After the holidays, I will sit down with books like ALL YOU CAN EAT IN THREE SQUARE FEET to figure out what we can and want to grow next year. I never got to use the seeds I ordered last year, before the move. In fact, I can’t even find them, although I hope to uncover them as I finish the unpacking.
Planning next year’s garden is always fun. I can dream as wildly as I want, before getting more practical, in terms of space available. It will be very different this year, because we can’t do any in-ground planting.
I miss my lilac bushes terribly.
The Celtic Tree Month of Birch is about regeneration and creativity. I could use some of that!
Happy New Year! I wish you health, peace, abundance, and joy.
Today is known as “Nameless Day” in the Celtic Tree calendar. It’s between the Tree Month of Elder and the Tree Month of Birch. Mistletoe is associated with today. It’s a “between times” day. It’s the day of unshaped potential, and a good day to decide what it is you want to manifest.
The weather is so changeable here. It reminds me of Scotland, where it’s lovely one minute and then stormy the next. We’d been warned that winters were gray and stark here, and we’ve gotten off easy so far, so I am not complaining.
Since we are on the second floor, I enjoy watching the weather from our large windows, or the porch or the back balcony. I love being able to watch the mountains.
The Winter Solstice was a gorgeous day, and I got a good many of my cookie platters delivered. It was delightful to be out and about.
Yesterday was rainy and raw, so I stayed in and baked; that means I have to push to finish all the deliveries and errands by today.
We still have plants on the front porch, because it hasn’t been all that cold. The Mother’s Tongue was getting too much sun, and didn’t like it, so we brought it in and put it in the sewing room, where it’s recovering like a Victorian heroine.
We don’t have a working fireplace in this house, so we couldn’t burn the greens saved from last year. Instead, I took my big cauldron out on the back balcony, and slowly, branch by branch, burned the greens. I didn’t want flames or a lot of smoke to worry the neighbors. But it was done, and a nice psychological tool to release the past year, and the stress of the move, and the life on Cape Cod.
I’m curious to see what this winter brings. It’s been warmer and milder than usual (my heat bill is happy). But we’re supposed to have a couple of weeks of bad weather before it levels out again.
Fingers crossed I can watch most of it from my window, rather than going out in it.
We are having an unseasonably warm patch right now. The past few days have been mild and sunny. I took advantage of it by doing as many errands as possible on foot, so I could be out and about, enjoying the weather.
Last night, it rained quite a bit, and it’s supposed to get up to 61 degrees F today.
We’ve been warned there’s snow coming in on Saturday, so I better get as much done as possible before then!
It’s much drier here in the mountains than it was by the ocean. The indoor plants need watering far more often. We should probably have a humidifier on, but they’re all in storage. And, frankly, it’s kind of nice not to have things damp, although I’m using far more hand cream than usual.
Both trees are up. The big one is almost decorated; we still have a few more boxes of decorations to get on there. It’s fun to figure out how things fit in this place.
The big tree completely dominated the living room, and, indeed, the entire downstairs in the Cape house. Here, it just looks normal-sized (it’s 7-1/2 feet tall). It looks good in the space, and it’s amazing how much more breathing room there is, both physically and psychologically, with higher ceilings.
We still have plants out on the front porch because it just hasn’t been that cold (at least not for long stretches). The small tree is out on the front porch, along with lights strung up along the windows. People look up as they walk past and enjoy it. The delivery guy from a local restaurant says the address is easy to find, because it has the “happy lights.”
Soon, I will have to hunt for the seeds I didn’t get to use last year, and figure out what we can and want to plant for next year. It will mean re-reading ALL YOU CAN EAT IN THREE SQUARE FEET, I’m sure.
Small tree on the front porch. Photo by Devon Ellington.
Thursday, December 9, 2021
First Quarter Moon in Aquarius
Chiron and Uranus Retrograde
Celtic Tree Month of Elder
Snowy and cold
It snowed twice yesterday, once in the morning, then a break, then again in the evening and into the night. It wasn’t a lot of snow, either time, just two or three inches. It looks pretty, it needs to be brushed off the cars.
They’re good about plowing here. Unlike on Cape Cod, where it could be days before one saw a plow, and there were times when I could see the cleared street at the end of the block, but couldn’t actually get to it, the plows are out regularly. They’re strict about the “no parking on the street” regulations from November 1 to April 30, so that they can plow, and people actually respect it. With everyone working together, it works.
Because we are on the second floor, and have these magnificent windows, I love to sit or lie on the couch and watch the snow fall. It’s becoming one of my favorite mountain pastimes! And it’s wonderful to look out of either the front or back windows and see the mountains.
I love the way snow puts a quieting blanket on it all. Our neighborhood is reasonably quiet anyway, even with the college right here. For some reason, the clock isn’t chiming anymore, or right now. I don’t know if they turned it off because there was a film crew here, or for maintenance, or if it’s off for the winter. I miss it terribly. I loved keeping track of my day with it.
We have the small tree up on the porch, with the blue and silver ornaments. It’s the tree that used to be in my office. It’s got the painted shells and starfish and sand dollars that we accumulated and painted through the Cape years, and I also strung colored lights along the windows. It’s very pretty.
detail of small tree. Photo by Devon Ellington.
The stair bannisters are wrapped in lights and garlands, and look pretty, too.
This weekend, we put up the big tree. We finally decided to put it in the doorway between the living room and the sewing room, because I can tie it off to the door hinges for security.
It will be a big job. And there are still other decorations to unpack and put up. Since this space is new to us, there’s a lot of rearranging involved! But it’s fun.
After the holidays, I will have to sit down with the seed catalogs, and we will have to decide what we can, realistically, plant on the front porch and on the back balcony in containers. The garden will be very different this year, but it will exist.
It’s been snowing, on and off, since just before Thanksgiving. Not enough to be a problem, just enough to be pretty. The buildings and branches are all decorated for winter.
We’ve left only the hardiest plants on the front porch, and will probably bring those in, as soon as we get the Yule tree up. It is an artificial tree, and the smaller tree, that we’ve also had for decades, will be decorated and put on the front porch.
Decorating is happening in bits and pieces, mostly because the COVID booster took me out of commission for a few days and I’m behind where I’d like to be. Plus, I have to do the domestic cards and the baking.
But it will all get done.
We’re in the Celtic tree month of Elder, which is a time for creativity and renewal, of endings, beginnings, and rejuvenation. I’m ready for that.
And it’s lovely to lie on the couch and watch the snow fall.
Gratitude and Growth: A Garden Journal 