December Flakes

It’s early December and flakes have been falling. It almost puts me in a trance when I look out the window as they slowly fall to the ground, one large flake after another. We’ve had some bitter wind, a reminder of what is to come, but now the flakes fall in winter stillness.

The wood is stacked on the porch and the dyes that remained useable are now in the cellar. Dyes will keep longer when kept cool and when urea is added to the mix.

This is not my favorite time of year. It is dark, cold, the ground is hard and frozen. The brightness comes from the holiday lights and gets us through the shortest, darkest day of the year. The snow makes winter bright and when January arrives the days bring a little more of our welcome daylight. I like to think of the sunny winter days to come with the sun reflecting off the bright snow. Those brilliant days I like to get outside and go snowshoeing or cross country skiing.

I also can’t help but think back to our winter farm days—Yikes!!!! So many things could freeze and go wrong. But, there were many good memories also. The cows would get outside to investigate the fresh clean snow after a storm. Then at milking time they would settle into their stalls and relax, gratefully chewing the fresh silage and hay. It was also wonderful to see the hutch calves running and kicking through the fresh snow. Some good ideas for batik have come from those images, but………. won’t be completed until next year.