nearly there

Winters in the Northwest invite you to hibernate for about.... oh, four to six months. It's not exactly required, and you may feel enthusiastic enough to go out and play in the mountains, take a couple of trips, and perhaps even take long walks every single day (your dog may require it of you, and you may oblige). But compared to the energy and enthusiasm of Spring, Summer and Fall... Well, let's just say things are a bit different in Winter.

The cherry trees, crocus, and daffodils are blooming now. Buds are emerging on branches everywhere, and I walk around feeling pretty darn delighted. I find myself coming up with projects (when two weeks ago I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have any projects and couldn't think of any). I painted the trim in our hallway. I painted our bathroom. I reorganized the basement and rearranged my design studio. It's like the fog and sleepiness of winter has thinned and dispersed, and suddenly I notice all sorts of things to do! Pretty exciting, really.

Today is heavy with torrents of rain and wind. The streets are deserted as we watch from our office windows hoping to see the action of someone caught in this monsoon. Just as the day seems as if it is about to go dark, the clouds break a little and the room lights up.

I'm pretty sure I've yawned about 4,387 times today, but I swear I'm feeling perky. It's only a matter of time before Spring really is here (no more snow, like on Tuesday!) and then Summer is sure to follow. I look forward to BBQ's and boating, long evening walks and perhaps a couple of camping trips.

In the meantime I will busy myself with household thrills like mopping the floor and dusting out the cupboards. And maybe some more painting...

Irish seaside courtesy of this is glamorous

Oregon cherry blossoms

Spring cherry tree

Ng

It's an anagram for Nanogram, and a Cantonese word that means....?

Due to a very interesting turn of events, I can't look this lovely word up on Wikipedia. But I find it lovely and thought I'd share it all the same.

If you don't know about the internet Blackout, you should look it up. I can't tell which side I'm on, which means I should read more about it. We in the United States are able (as many people are not) to voice our opinions about our laws and lawmakers. It's pretty special. And it's not often that our voices rise up together, showing that we really do care.

And now I'm going to make a big cup of hot cocoa and watch a silly television show while I wait for more snow to fall. Our world is white and cold, crunchy and delightful. We only get one or two days of this each year, and I am soaking it up.

I'll leave you with a few photos from A.T.S., who has liked me a lot for a long time, and loved me a lot for quite a while. (That's pretty special, too.)

snow wishes

The temperature here is a brisk 26F. The sky is blue. There is no snow to speak of, but the promise of snow has had me waking up in the wee hours of the night and peeking out of windows to see if it has snowed yet. The answer is no. Well, not really. We got about half an inch, which makes the little Snow Wisher in me very sad and pouty. To make matters worse, there are people I work with who actually got snowed in. Granted they have a 45 minute commute in the morning and I have about a 7 1/2 minute commute. But still!

So to perk up a little, I poured myself a cup of hot tea and poked around on Google Images looking at scenes of "winter." Here are a few of the most wonderful winter wonderlands I came across.

I feel much better now, and have changed my desktop to the photo of pretty iron lawn chairs stacked with white, fluffy, wonderful snow.