A graceful slippage of snow off the handrail of the steps up onto the front deck.
Even as I might complain about months of very cold soggy conditions, I
am reminded, when I get out into the garden for the variety of relief
beginning to develop, albeit too-slowly.
I see the bed of mache, which I’ve tended closely since it began
sprouting in January, start to fill-out again. This very early green has
a rich flavor & sturdy tooth, even as that comes with a fairly
irritating effort to rinse off the bits of compost & soil splashed
by the rain into the handsome muscularity of its squat growth of tight,
small-leafed rosettes. I harvested a great & happily fulsome salad
during a warmer spell earlier in January, but it has been slow to regrow
again during this recent return of cold.
Even a beach walk becomes too quickly less than pleasant.
Making welcome a retreat to the warmth of the wood stove…
Still,
on clear days, Tahoma reveals her thick wardrobe of new snow… echoed in
this shot by an even brighter ship sailing toward either of the two
large seaports deeper in the vast Puget Sound, Tacoma, just around the
peninsula of our island at the right, then further, under the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge [which replaced the notorious earlier one nicknamed “Galloping Gertie”
to Olympia, Washington State’s Capitol. The map of the Puget Sound is a
very complex… well worth a search to see what is essentially quite a
fine Fjord.
Our lady mountain frequently doffs picturesque lenticular berets.
Stephen
loves taking advantage of a neighbor’s invitation to borrow their kayak
for a quiet morning on the water. I can watch from the bedroom, warm
with my morning coffee. You realize I’m not a great fan of our winter
weather.
Daffodils are early portents of the promising season…
Stephen pruned the quince to let this study cutting finish booming out well on the dining table.
A
bunch of white tulips settled into a stage back-dropped by a painting
of a bull with a shekina symbol on its brow which Stephen collected
before we met; the leaded glass lamp I commissioned from an artist in
Sedona & the hand-painted olive wreath platter which I bought &
then hand-carried from my first trip to Tuscany 20+ years ago.
This
specimen of flowering kale was rescued from a sale tale just after the
holidays. It continues to bless us with a happy vibrancy.
One
of her most glorious visages is the alpenglow at sunset. The Pacific
coast is almost 70 miles away to the west, with the Olympic Mountains in
between, which creates a wide range of atmospheric effects, frequently
giving her the notion of a “Raspberry” sundae.
So in spite that it has been too cold & too wet, we have enjoyed some spectacular color… nonetheless I am quiteready for spring!
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