Winter Waning

Its hard for me to feel like Carnival season starts on Epiphany.  I don't do winter well, and the period of winter stretching between the end of the winter holidays and Lent can just seem so dreary.  

Down here we get scatterings of truly warm days when spring starts to sing in your blood and I start thinking of ladybugs and spring plantings and long days instead of long nights ... but those days are like false prophets - they shiver back down into South Texas' mild version of cold and dreary soon enough. 

We have mostly packed up Christmas today.  I put out the stale leftover bits of Rosca de Reyes for the birds.  

I boldly planted a bit of chard, some spearmint, an herb I have not used or known before called salad burnet and, of course, some marigolds.  I scattered lettuce seeds in the dirt-filled kiddie pool that I planted with beans last year - I may not have grown as much protein as I wanted but, hopefully, I did fix a lot of nitrogen.

I am trying to decide what goes on the nature table now, what sort of wreath I should have on the door, what flags for the garden to mark this part of winter.  I think barren is the only decor that feels appropriate.

Still, I left work at just past six on Thursday and it was not dark, just dusk.  In moments it was dark, but that's real progress.

The Light grows.