Solstice

Winter solstice always makes me think of that Robert Frost poem; “stopping by woods on a snowy evening,” a poem I memorized as a kid while riding the chairlift at Bridger Bowl with my step-dad. We would ski a run together, then he would help me practice the poem on the ride back up, after a whole day, I had it…and I still remember most of it. I’m not a big Frost fan…or maybe I am, I just became a little bit of a poetry snob in school and Frost didn’t write about anything edgy enough to be considered relevant. But I’m thinking about writing in different ways, and finding a new appreciation for poetry that is simpler and not as focused on shocking/reinventing/being vague for no real reason/calling attention to itself…etc.
At different times in my life, the last few lines have struck me in different ways…the speaker is out in the woods watching the snow fall on winter solstice, and he says:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I’ve bristled and resisted that notion of returning to the day-to-day because of the responsibilities you feel toward other people, and I’ve idealized the notion of having a life where you really only answer to yourself…





but I read it a little differently now.

Brrrrrrrrrrr

Sometimes when you find out your life is about to change (yet again) you have the need to just retreat for a little while, sink back into the simplest parts of your life and absorb the new information. Or at least that’s what I do…have been doing, over the last week. It has been cold…very very cold..daytime high of 5 degrees cold, so the weather has been conducive to hibernating as well. This is my backyard during sunrise on a REALLY cold morning...that litte shed/fence is our chicken coop. You won't see any chickens-they're hiding out under their heat-lamp.

A. and I have been going to the pool just about every day and doing anything else we can come up with to ward off cabin fever (another round of ‘ring-around-the-rosie’ anyone?) Here are some pictures of the last week:

*my last post i was bragging up lettuce in December...this was my coldframe just before the snow flew...








*There was no way A. was going to hang out with Santa w/o Mama...he didn't seem to mind, tho...

*We stay outside until we're freezing:

*A. is pretty good at letting me know when she's had enough!

Oh, December

By all weather-predicting accounts (newspaper, tv weatherman, dj on public radio this morning) western Montana is due to receive Mother Nature’s wintery wrath at about 7 pm tonight. Lots of snow followed by freezing cold seems to be the consensus. I spent this morning out at the community garden hacking frozen clumps of dirt into frozen crumbly dirt in an attempt to get the rest of the garlic in the ground before it freezes solid. My boss/friend came out to help me, and of course I had A. out there as well, completely bundled to the point of near-immobility…which ended up being good because she kept stumbling around and falling over into the dirt, but had plenty of padding so it all worked out. It was chilly but the sun was out and it felt good to spend some time out there. One of my hard-core community gardeners still has some greens under plastic sheeting that haven’t frozen…they still looked edible! Fresh salad from the garden in December in Montana? Well, dang!


A. spent some time under my desk this morning making some very important phone calls with the adapter-thing from my computer.

She also knows how to swipe a credit card...where did this child come from?

Oh, and I had to post this picture because it is so sweet and peaceful looking...and that doesn't usually last long!

Not Scrooge, Exactly

Yesterday afternoon/evening (about 4pm, I think, but it felt later since it gets dark here so early) I took A. and the dog for a walk around town. We still don’t have any snow on the ground, but the mountains are very white. Usually at this time of year, I want snow everywhere, it just makes things (Holidays especially) seem a little more festive. Yesterday, though, I realized that I’m really enjoying the long fall we’ve had, the sparseness of bare tree limbs and the bare frozen ground that glitters when you look at it right. A. and I ended up at the big playground and she climbed up and went down the baby slide about five times by herself (and by that, I mean I held her hand to keep her from shooting off the edge into the woodchips).

Although I’m loving the Christmas tree we cut last weekend and set up in the living room, I haven’t done ANY Christmas shopping yet…so I’m starting to worry a little (tho not enough to actually motivate me to shop…) I don’t know if it’s the prospect of store-hopping with an extremely wiggly toddler, or the fact that I’m looking at money a little differently since I started working again. A $50 charge at a store now translates to me as over 5 whole hours of my life that I didn’t spend gardening, or writing poetry, or hiking in the mountains, or reading to my daughter…so that’s a pretty steep price. Plus I’d rather make/create gifts that have some thought behind them…although every year I harbor delusions that I’m really crafty, then after several hot-glue burns, jammed sewing machines, and huge messes usually including some kind of non-washable paint…I remember that I’m really not! So here I sit, absolutely unprepared for the impending holiday…and really not too concerned about it!

Happy Half Birthday

I took A. to swimming lessons this morning after making some zucchini/bran muffins (they're better than they sound) then went out to lunch w/ friends E&A and E's mom. A. drank most of the little bowl of salsa they put out to go with the chips (we were at a Mexican Rest.) and then had to chug a bunch of applejuice to put out the fire...she then sputtered applejuice all over the table and everyone sitting around it...so a good time was had by all! Also today is birthday 1.5 for A! Soooooooo........HAPPY HAPPY 18 MONTHS TO PUNCHANELLA FROM THE ZOO!