A graceful slippage of snow off the handrail of the steps up onto the front deck.
Even as I might complain about months of very cold soggy conditions, I am reminded, when I get out into the garden for the variety of relief beginning to develop, albeit too-slowly.
I see the bed of mache, which I’ve tended closely since it began sprouting in January, start to fill-out again. This very early green has a rich flavor & sturdy tooth, even as that comes with a fairly irritating effort to rinse off the bits of compost & soil splashed by the rain into the handsome muscularity of its squat growth of tight, small-leafed rosettes. I harvested a great & happily fulsome salad during a warmer spell earlier in January, but it has been slow to regrow again during this recent return of cold.
Even a beach walk becomes too quickly less than pleasant.
Making welcome a retreat to the warmth of the wood stove…
Still, on clear days, Tahoma reveals her thick wardrobe of new snow… echoed in this shot by an even brighter ship sailing toward either of the two large seaports deeper in the vast Puget Sound, Tacoma, just around the peninsula of our island at the right, then further, under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge [which replaced the notorious earlier one nicknamed “Galloping Gertie” to Olympia, Washington State’s Capitol. The map of the Puget Sound is a very complex… well worth a search to see what is essentially quite a fine Fjord.
Our lady mountain frequently doffs picturesque lenticular berets.
Stephen loves taking advantage of a neighbor’s invitation to borrow their kayak for a quiet morning on the water. I can watch from the bedroom, warm with my morning coffee. You realize I’m not a great fan of our winter weather.
Daffodils are early portents of the promising season…
Stephen pruned the quince to let this study cutting finish booming out well on the dining table.
A bunch of white tulips settled into a stage back-dropped by a painting of a bull with a shekina symbol on its brow which Stephen collected before we met; the leaded glass lamp I commissioned from an artist in Sedona & the hand-painted olive wreath platter which I bought & then hand-carried from my first trip to Tuscany 20+ years ago.
This specimen of flowering kale was rescued from a sale tale just after the holidays. It continues to bless us with a happy vibrancy.
One of her most glorious visages is the alpenglow at sunset. The Pacific coast is almost 70 miles away to the west, with the Olympic Mountains in between, which creates a wide range of atmospheric effects, frequently giving her the notion of a “Raspberry” sundae.
So in spite that it has been too cold & too wet, we have enjoyed some spectacular color… nonetheless I am quiteready for spring!
