Springing Forward

By the time the hoopla of Christmas and the New Year are over, I have usually had enough of winter, and I am ready to think about spring.  It is reasonable, really, to begin a new year with the season of new life.  Most cultures did, didn't they, until the self-aggrandizing Romans turned the New Year into a bank holiday.  Never mind that February and March come between now and springtime; I have visions of planting and blooming and even canning.  This January the weather around here has not been very convincingly wintry, and apparently I am not the only one who is confused:

Besides all that, our book club's choice for this month was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver.  The best parts of the book are, naturally, about gardening, and my ambition has been growing.  I've been trying to figure out how to rig up a better seed nursery inside, which new seeds to try, how much of the yard to plow up for new beds, and it is all so exciting!

Until today.  Perhaps in order to prevent, or at least postpone, my gardening hubris, my body has come down with a cold.  Now I am ready to curl up under a blanket and let it be winter outside.  I'll read another book, one about running.  And maybe next week, I'll be excited about that!