baby, it’s cold outside

In general, I like to embrace all of natures seasons. Let the cold air bite, I say. Let your eyelashes freeze shut as you dash from your car into the grocery store. It’s only for a week or two. And it will make us even more appreciative of spring when it arrives. But I have been hunched into myself for over a week now, and my shoulders are starting to ache. One can only drink so much hot tea in a day. I could use a break. Or a sauna. This is deep winter. It is as remarkable and worthy of our attention as high summer. I keep telling myself that over and over. But I do not have fur. And the cold stings. I am ready for some relief.

frost covered white pine needles

round and round

I am chasing the sun these days.  I have all sorts of event requests in my inbox as a result of my book launch (you’ll be hearing more about it very soon). So, my days are spent replying to emails, and not playing with my beloved nature subjects. Thus, this slapdash circle of winter stems. Yes, it’s ironic. I write a book about stillness and the the art of slowing down so we can be attentive to the ordinary things in our environment that we so often look past. And as a result of writing such a book, I am hurriedly replying to email requests, and rushing through my days. Alas, it is a temporary state. And one must make hay while the sun shines.

simple and pretty

Keeping it simple today because I had lunch with an old friend, that turned into a three hour lunch as they do with old friends, and by the time I got home, the light was waning. Late lunch. Dried flowers. Simple pleasures.

dried flowers

a little departure

Here’s a little departure from all the winter stems and branches. We are finally getting some insulation in our roof (remember that tree that fell on the house in July?), and when the contractor removed the temporary barrier to install the new insulation, this little guy fell onto my living room floor. He was alive, but very groggy. Clearly he had been awakened from a deep mid-winter hibernation. I snapped a few quick photos, and then we bundled him up and my son took him to the Wild Animal Rescue center near us, where apparently they’ll put him back in hibernation until spring. I don’t mind bats. We like seeing them come out in the summer evening twilight. They do us a great service, eating all those mosquitos. I wish we hadn’t had to disturbed him.

Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus)

ready for take-off

It was those rocket shaped tips at the top of those long fuses that caught my attention. Are they simply dried ovaries? I spent some time looking up the anatomy of flowers…but no one ever thinks to include the spent, or winter, version of the plant in their descriptions. Any botanists out there?

(unidentified) winter stems