Winter Musings...

I'm very late in posting a new blog entry.  Since Halloween, I have been on the go...designing, stitching, teaching, thinking, working, sewing, designing, stitching, wrapping, shopping, cooking, cleaning, reading, designing, stitching....it goes on and on...you know the drill!

So, here I am, 5 days before Christmas, and although I have new designs that I am very excited about, I am saving them for the January TNNA Needlework Market.  I feel bad seeing orange leaves and halloween landscapes still posted on my blog, so I decided to share a few winter images and thoughts.

Here are photos of winter scenes where I live. We typically get snow several times a season..but so far, none this year.  I've accompanied these photos with notes I wrote in 2000 when I was enrolled in a creative writing class.  I share these 'winter musings' with you and hope you find inspiration in your surroundings too.

                                                        The Garden in White

"Eight to ten inches of piled on white.  It is melting now, a little, but when I woke this morning, the world was a magical place.  The backyard fence was transformed into a netting of exquisite lacework; darning patterns, open stitches in neat rowed conformity.
  

The oak and cedar trees were laden with white as well.   No lace there among their branches; only large balled clumps, deliberately placed, as if this tree, this limb, were designated storage for the stuff.

Now birds are beginning to move about.  I saw a tiny lone bird this morning, hopping underneath the lawn chair, under the eves of the porch.   It was as if lost and not knowing where to find companionship.  Now black crows are darting in and out of trees, their blackness a magnificent contrast to the pristine white.

I measured an 8" depth with my ruler this morning. I ventured outside into the cold crispness in my bathrobe and open toed sandals.  Had to measure!  If I were a child, I would be romping about in it, but I am perfectly happy to just gaze now and take in all this beauty.

The water is still running over the rocks in the pond Ron built last summer.  The $200 pump is doing it's job, circulating water from horse trough pond, up through the rusty pump, down over the mini mountain of boulders; a cycle that delights birds and even a snake that we know of.  There are seven goldfish in the pond, cozy I hope, under their blanket of waterlilies and water hyacinth.

Today, I will relax and enjoy this white world for as long as it lasts.  We are without electricity for the time being.  Oh well...laundry has to wait.  What shall I occupy myself with first?  My book, or my stitching?"
                                                              ~The End~

I don't remember what I chose to do...but as much as I love to read, I love to stitch more.  I bet I chose stitching!  What would you do, on a snow bound day?

Happy Holidays...and whatever you do to celebrate, I wish you happiness and joy!