Emerging from our Dark Days

 Avery is skipping around the house singing of summer as I sit down to type. She has been at it for at least ten minutes; singing of riding her bike, playing in the mud and in the garden and even itching from bug bites. It is that time of year. The dark days of winter are behind us. Days of sun on sparkling snow and a brighter blue sky are ahead. As I walked up to the chickens today carrying a bucket of scraps and a jug of water, I noticed a chickadee with a different call than I’ve been hearing. Not their usual short trills and chatter as they go to and fro from the trees to the feeders, but longer and louder calls like he actually had something important to say. As I paused to study him I noticed that for the first time since November, the sun was hitting the tops our Birch trees. I’m not yet dreaming of mud, aching muscles and sunburn, but I am looking forward to sun warming my face as I play outside on warm sunny winter days. I’m dreaming of the deep blue sky of March.

I feel triumphant this time of year. The darkest months are the hardest for me, and those are behind us. Some Januaries I fall deep into books, not to emerge until the month has past, shaking off a fog only to realize that yes I rested, but I have nothing to show for myself, none of the after Holiday crafting that I’d hoped to continue. This winter I’ve been listening to more audio books and knitting. This past month I knitted myself the Clodach hat pattern in a gray baby Alpaca, the Lace and Twist gloves in a similar shade of gray and I’ve almost finished a gift for next Christmas. I pulled out all my yarn the other day and am trying to come up with something else I can make without having to buy more yarn, but have yet to form a plan.

 This week and next we are working with the days of the week and the months of the year. Most seasonal poems do not synch with our seasons here, so I wanted to make a poem that described what we are doing here during each month. Dustin was give a Steelers Football calendar and that is all we had so far, and I didn’t think I could look at it all year, so the kids and I made some water color paintings yesterday thinking of different months and today we began writing on them. They came up with ideas for their month’s verses and I tried to help make it sound ok.