Poetry Friday: Winter Cherry Cinquain

Happy Poetry Friday! I am sharing a cinqain today, a shorter form but kind of fun for its simplicity and compact succinctness. Yesterday the boys and  I pulled over because I spotted the first blooms of tiny, flowers on the dormant looking branches of a Prunus subhirtella, the winter cherry. It was bitter cold so the boys all stayed bundled in the car while I braved the frosty air, breathing smoky clouds of breath on the branches in the sunlight. I took one tiny blossom into the car and let my four year old hold the tiny bloom up to his eye, examining the minute gold stamens with a smile. This is all in December, in New England...in below freezing temperatures, mind you.

 Last year I noticed the little blossoms in February by chance and went dashing home all full of global warming sadness and googled to see if other people in my area were seeing cherry trees bloom far, far too early.  Instead I met this particular species of cherry and found out that it was happily doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing....blooming "sporadically from autumn until spring." There is a whole row of them there, standing side by side all along the parking lot. This year, knowing they are there now the boys and I will keep enjoying the gradual, gentle show. I do love an unexpected pleasure. 

Winter Sakura

I find
Pale, petals
Fluttering in the chill park
December-time cherry blossoms.
Rosy snow. 

 Alison is hosting Poetry Friday round-up today over on her blog Robin Hood Black. Take a lazy, meander through the offerings and enjoy a little poetry with your Saturday morning tea. I am hoping to get a chance myself, mug in hand, baby on my knee....

24 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

A list is a kind of a cure. I keep a small pad on my bedside table for self-curing end of day (or early morning) stress bouts. I keep oodles of lists on our computer, I scribble them on our new kitchen chalkboard and I have a gazillion all over my iPhone to boot.  Lists galore! That's the way to sooth what ails you.

 I do eat trash to calm myself but I am trying to break the habit and one of the recent ways I've been reading about is replacing the habit with a different soothing mechanism...a good way to figure out what works for you is to observe yourself and see what else you do to set things right again. And the first answer that came to me in the midst of my ill-tempered fit this morning was LISTS!

It's February and my id is sulking and sobbing by turns. Time to solve it. Here's a list of what I love about February today, greyest of months, center of winter's numb heart.

25 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

1. Its the month when we celebrate love with its very own holiday.
2. It has a Leap Day!
3. The snowdrops bloom in February.
4. It's great baking weather.
5. Chilly days mean snug fires in the fireplace with a big stack of library books teetering next to us.
6. President's Day is a special surprise I always forget about that brings us a little long weekend together.
7. Maple syrup season starts!
8. There are always stray clementines lingering in my coat pockets.
9. We use the snuggly throws on the couches.
10. Sunny days feel potent and rich, even if they are infrequent.
11. Greenhouses. 
12. In February I sew and knit and paint and all other manner of industrious indoor things.
13. Dee was born in February.
14. February is short.
15. It's a great time to read design blogs.
16. Sleeping comes naturally in February...a healthy habit after all.
17. February is a great time to test out new teas and coffee spices.
18. Watching costume dramas (which my boys consider a fun treat!) is a wonderful chilly February occupation.
19. The people in my life who love me feel warmer and brighter and more potent to me in February.
20. Scarves and boots come out to play!
21. I get to try out chapstick and lotion flavors with impunity. 
22.  The weeds in the garden stay in check perfectly.
23. I think of having company.
24. The Academy Awards happen!
25. Coffee houses.

See? Not so bad now! February...my new pal. Just don't wear out your welcome, eh F? I have hyacinths out there budding and we're not gonna wait forever for 'em.

Snowy, Snow, Snow, Snow

Today it snowed some more. It's the latest thing. Everyone on the East Coast is having the same...it's all the rage. A even caught himself thinking longingly about a snow-blower until I reminded him that this year is a severe anomaly. We normally don't lose sight of our grass for very long stretches during the winter and real accumulation is more of a wish than anything else. I always head to Michigan for Christmas, thinking fondly about how absolutely cock-sure it is that there will be a deep blanket of white.

Somehow it seems "right" to me to have blizzards and snowy walks and a sifting blanket of white on these winter evenings. It is after all winter.  It seems like winter ought to come with snow. And really, Ru is rarely happier than when he's out playing in the white stuff. It's a year of sleds, snowball fights, and shoveling, shoveling, shoveling. He couldn't be more pleased. It's so very lucky that we bought a house just before the record snowfalls of 2010-11 so that he could get hands on walk clearing lessons by his daddy's side almost every evening.

That said, I am not sure how much longer I want this snow to stick around. December was a lovely month to be snowed-in and January is still quite jolly...no holidays just snow-days. February now...that ought to be the end. I'm willing to let the white stuff linger this one last month and then I hope to see signs of spring. That's about as long as this wussy girl from The Great White North manages to hold out with any amount of good cheer.

I love this sign that we pass on our way to the next town when we take the back-roads. I'm not the only one who's starting to dream of budding flowers.....

Radiators, Restoration and Garden Rehab

Its getting cold and its time to wear socks every time we go outdoors now and test out radiator life indoors. I love our radiators. It makes me happy turn the thermostat and hear them hum and hang my towel on one in the morning.

I started carving out the first of our garden beds this morning and have plans to ask our next door neighbor for the use of his chainsaw to remove the yews all across the front of the house. Am looking forward to the open look and all the possibility it allows. The gardens I made this morning are super cute and I have plans for a climbing rose on a trellis on the stone wall at the back, an arbor in another section of the yard, and am hoping to divide and transplant the peonies, irises and daylilies that we inherited with the house. I can't wait to see what color they all are. I will bet on pink for the peonies and my landscape designer friend things the daylilies  might be stella d'oro which would make me quite happy as they are a little more controllable and interesting than giant swaths of the orange variety.

"Before" of where I put the two new little beds. I love this doorway and can't wait to frame it beautifully.

Cutting and rolling up the sod to make it an open soil area for flowering plants!

Sod rolls

A kind of chopped off "After" shot...shows all of the small bed on the left and part of the bigger one on the right. They are both half moons against the stone. Climbing rose will go on the wall to the right.

Here's where I envision the arbor. Right in that gap between that pole on the ground and edge of the new bed. I think it will be a great entrance to the garden from the drive.

 

 

A view of some of the yews across the front of the house that will require a chainsaw.

Have chicken and baked potatoes in the oven and a table I trashpicked off a curb that I'm working on restoring. If only I had a magical stash of spray paint to pick through and use, I'd love to paint it and also the changing table I made and the days for painting large furniture outdoors are drawing to a close. Pretty soon paint won't dry well because it will be too cold.

Legs of my trash table

And the oh-so-separated at the moment top...trying to figure out how to put it back together.

Am stoked for a weekend as I have made a new plan, run errands on weekends and thus eliminate manic insanity on the days when I have the car during the week. It should help me keep the dashing around minimized during the week and help me actually get into some sort of a home routine again. As is we're either totally grounded and cozy-home or running our heads off with three quarters of us in tears by the time we run home panting at the end of the day and realize there aren't any dinner plans. Can't have that.