Hunkered down for Winter!

Good excuse to stay home and create!

Trees down, neighbors helping each other dig out, 
Waiting for a clear path to the mail box.
Beauty everywhere.

"Nature is full of genius, full of the divine; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.."
Henry David Thoreau
 

Celebrating Winter

What fun I'm having 'building' snowmen without getting cold and wet.



 I'm celebrating Winter a bit early this year.  But sharing my studio with snowmen seems to be a high priority for me.

 Here are a few Teresa Kogut designs that I'm working (or playing) with. I highly recommend her designs.

The above designs are created by Teresa Kogut. Oh how I love 'working' these designs and seeing them appear beneath my fingers.

I promise to show you my version in frames later this month.  Meanwhile here are 'good' thoughts of Winter.

* Turning our gas fireplace on for the first time in the year.

* Spending more time in my studio because its 'too cold' outside. (good excuse huh?)

*Bundling up with coat, hat and gloves and taking a walk on the first sunny day after a week of grey, cold days.

A good excuse for hot chocolate and/or hot tea morning, noon and night.

 

" Snowmen fall from heaven one flake at a time."

My Kitchen Window

Earlier this year I decided to do all the dishes by hand.  Standing in front of the sink, feeling the warm water and suds on my hands and looking out the window as the seasons, one by one go by -- what a joy.

It has been a total delight to see the seasons present themselves in the woods behind our house.  I have to say that Autumn, which seems to have ended well before the deadline, was nothing less than a joy to observe.  Wanting to keep a 'record' of that beautiful season I filled a box lid with my two favorite leaves.  Happily I'll have them nearby to take me through these somewhat barren days of Winter.

It was as if overnight, the weather got cold and the trees shed their colorful leaves.  Each season brings its own beauty and these days my window frames bare branches, the 'bones of the trees are outlined against deep blue skies.  

"Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky." - Kahlil Gibran

Leaving Winter

A time to say goodbye to winter, even though spring equinox is still a bit away.  

A time to set aside clocks and watches, alarms and beeps.

I have conquered time with this piece of stitchery, have put it in its place, and vowed to open my own mind and heart to the freshness of spring.

"In the midst of winter, I found within me, there was an invincible summer.  And that makes me happy.  For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger -- something better pushing right back." - Albert Camus

Winter Time

Almost to Spring... 

Such a strange Winter this has been.  More 'conflicted' days than 'contented' days. Even my body has felt it, as I've dealt with aches and pains more often than I usually have to.

As I write this, the sun is shining and its above freezing outside.  Perhaps I'm getting a glimpse of the Spring to come.  Perhaps my life will be filled with light instead of darkness as we greet the coming months.  

I suspect that at this time in history I need to make my own bits and pieces of joy and imagination.   I must live in the moment and make each of those small moments count.  
Spring is coming...

"Time, time, time

See what's become of me

While I looked around for my possibilities

I was so hard to please

But look around, leaves are brown

And the sky is a hazy shade of winter..."

Simon and Garfunkle

The Winter Garden

As we delve deeper into winter I spy this beauty outside my studio window.

The Oakleaf Hydrangea never fails me.  From one season to another it gives me beauty while reminding me of time passing. 

When I took this picture the sun was shining, the air cold (but not freezing) and all was right with the world.  Entering a new year, this beautiful plant reminds me that everything has its season and some are able to remain beautiful throughout all four seasons.

"January is the quietest month in the garden...but just because it looks quiet doesn't mean nothing is happening.  The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall, while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants.  The feasting earth worms tunnel along, aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come." - Rosalie Muller Wright, editor of Sunset Magazine 1999

Winter's Ending

In some ways Winter can be a 'lonely' season.  We are often captives inside our warm, dry homes - while wind and snow and ice rage outside.  We are hermits of a sort.

Now it is March and Spring is not far away.  As I walked this morning I looked up at the bare limbs of the Winter trees.  

Behind them was a brilliant blue sky.  It was like an interim between the two seasons - with each season represented in the simpleness of bare trees and deep blue sky.

How I love the change of seasons.  Just as I'm getting tired of one the next one appears. 

"When the seasons shift, even the subtle beginning, the scent of a promised change, I feel something stir inside me.  Hopefulness? Gratitude? Openness? Whatever it is, it's welcome." - Kristin Armstrong

The Hand Stitched Doll

May I tell you what it is like to sit here in my studio hand stitching a doll?  Music is quietly playing.  Outside it is windy and cold and pretty much miserable.  There is a heating vent at my feet.  There is fabric and needle and thread. 

If I turn off the music there is only the sound of the wind outside and the thread moving through the fabric.  The doll rests in one hand with my fingers pinching the areas to be stitched.  It is heaven, of the oldest and most valued kind.  I feel the connection of early sewers sitting in front of a fire place - perhaps only a lantern to light their way. 

Meanwhile stories float through my mind and heart making a place for this soon-to-be finished hand stitched doll. 

"A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live." - Bertrand Russell

Winter Solstice

I'm not sure why I am always drawn to this season change.  Is it the silence and solitude that it represents for me?  Is it the slowing down of everything, even my heart?  Is it the nesting feeling that I always have as days and nights get colder and seemingly darker?

I'll let William Carlos Williams speak for me as we greet this year's winter solstice.

Winter Trees

by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details

of the attiring and

the disattiring are completed!

A liquid moon

moves gently among

the long branches.

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.

Then and Now

Not so long ago -- this was the scene in the garden.  

The flower pots showed no signs of their spring selves and this poor butterfly wondered what all this cold white stuff was...

Today, as I walk out the door I'm greeted with this beautiful white bloodroot  flower - shyly still closed up.

As the sun starts to shine so does this lovely, ethereal flower.

The phlox is in full bloom, even a little earlier this year than last and already spreading rapidly.

Each season has its beauty but after being an 'inside' creature for this past winter, I'm happy to celebrate spring.

"I am going to try to pay attention to the spring.  I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees.  I am going to close my eyes and listen." - Anne Lamott

Frost Flowers

In the midst of any season - even though we are tired of it and wish with all our hearts for the next season to appear - there is always beauty.  These 'frost flower' pictures show just how truly beautiful cold weather can be.

Ice sculptures like this make me shiver when I look at them, but they also make me thankful that there is beauty even when comfort itself is hard to find.  Its sometimes difficult to value the moment, the day, the season while it is here - but soon it will be gone and new sights, sounds and temperatures will be here.  Meanwhile, these visions are saved for posterity.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued

Robert Frost

{I thank my friend Dot for sending these images to me - she too received them from a friend and I'm following the tradition by passing them along to you.}

Winter House

I'm sitting here in my studio awaiting the next cold weather prediction.  Of course I had to 'build' a shelter during this time - a "Winter House".

Its been very cold outside with numbers like of 1 and 3 degrees bantered about. Quite chilly for this usually temperate southern climate.  But there is hope - the smoke from the chimney at Winter House is billowing out - meaning there's a warm fire within and I daresay my warmest sweater and many cups of hot tea.

I wish for all of you warmth and safety during what has been a very challenging winter.

"But it's mind, this poem of the night,

and I just stood there, listening and holding out

my hands to the soft glitter

falling through the air.  I love this world,

but not for its answers."

From - "Snowy NIght by Mary Oliver

New Year - More Fun

I love the new year -- I see before me 365 brand spanking new days.  I know what some of them will contain (or at least I think I do) but there are so many months, weeks, days, hours ahead that its like looking at a blank slate.

My first stitchery of the new year will be 'comfortable'.  It will speak of home and safety and the lovely softness that can come upon you while drinking hot tea or cocoa on a cold, winter's day. 

"Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality." - Andy Goldsworthy 

I Ask Once Again...

... where is Spring?

 

The very first day of spring we awoke to snow on the ground.

 

 

Puffy, light snow that looked like miniature snow balls on the bushes and leaves.

 

Or perhaps it was like powdered sugar, leaving designs on the walkway.

It was very early in the morning and bitterly cold as I took these photo's and I kept thinking that this was Nature's trick on us -- telling us "you just think its spring".

"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" - Percy Bysshe Shelley

Spring? - Winter?

 

On Monday afternoon I took my walk in sunshine.  The sky was deep blue as I captured the bare branches.

Down at the pond the sun shone on the water and the water reflected the trees above.

The early daffodils were putting on blooms in a circle - they just knew Spring had begun.

On Tuesday morning we awoke to a whole other world.  Ice on all the tree branches.  The small birch looked as if it had been frozen in time.

 

The trees at the corner were a Winter wonderland.

 

A small branch by a chair out front glistened with frozen rain drops.

 

One day I reveled in Spring - the next day I look with wonder at Winter.

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." - Albert Camus

Bare Bones

This skeleton of what for most of the year is clothed in green -- standing against the sky -- down to its bare essence.  I love it!

These branches interwoven among themselves - gently moving as a breeze stirs them - making their own sort of winter music.

 The bare bones of the tree - its foundation - the roots going deep, deep into the ground - the branches reaching for heaven.

This is winter - these trees - this is my life.

"There are two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as if everything is." - Albert Einstein

The Last Red

The last red sits just outside my studio.  All around it the leaves have turned their various colors and finally dropped crispy and brown to the ground while this beauty remains a lucious autumn red.

This spark of color heralds the coming winter -- it acts as a beacon of Fall  by staying behind its cohorts with its lovely show of color.

Winter will soon be here - the ground will turn white and the branches will be covered with snow  -- thanks heavens I have this memory of what is to come again next year.

"Listen -- are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?" - Mary Oliver

Weather Woes

This picture does NOT reflect what is outside my window today!  There has been no snow here at all (well, maybe one skiff, hardly noticeable at the end of December).  Every year in this area people worry about snow.  We live in a hilly country with lots of curvy roads.  When it snows we are paralyzed!  The school buses can't maneuver the roads, there is little if any snow removal by the city/county and you had better have some kind of stock of food on hand.

This year, with no snow and flowers blooming in February there are a whole new set of worries.  Our agricultural crops of apples, peaches and berries are vital to the economy.  Everyone is now worried that the buds will come on and then be frozen by a late (very late) winter snow and/or deep freeze.

There has been so much discussion throughout the community - worrying about the weather.  We worry when snow is predicted - we worry when no snow is predicted.  I have to wonder if perhaps the gobbles we hear from the wild turkeys that wander our neighborhood are merely more discussion about the winter of 2011/2012.

"Sometimes I wish that I was the weather, you'd bring me up in conversation forever.  And when it rained, I'd be the talk of the day." - John Mayer