January can often feel like something of a let down after the busyness of Christmas and the New Year celebrations. It's a long month, not least of all if you received your salary in advance of the holidays, or like me you are putting off the inevitable in trying to ignore the Tax Return deadline of 31 January for as long as possible. Perhaps like me, you have also been semi-hibernating and hoping to miraculously wake up to a splendid Spring day.
But ...
I hear you say, that would be wishing your life away and indeed that's exactly what it is, but nonetheless we all do it, don't we? Watching the clock and longing for home-time when we are in the midst of a particularly boring or fraught day at work; wishing it was the weekend when we have only just arrived at work 9am on a Monday morning; or counting down the months, weeks or days to a longed-for holiday.
Time - I sometimes wish it away with alarming flippancy. I wish I didn't - such wished-away time is precious and can never be returned to.
On a more positive note I always think each season makes us stop and gather our thoughts, whatever we feel about that particular season. Seasons punctuate the year and go hand-in-hand with traditions, anniversaries and celebrations (Easter being my favourite) and a rich seasonal calendar inspired by nature, such highlights of course go a long way in allaying our urge to hurry things along; but to just live in the moment.
In the meantime, my garden is brown mush and I have yet to summon up any enthusiasm for the horticultural year which should ideally begin in the month of January. I never know when it will come, but I will just as surely be inspired by an incredible urge to throw off the cloak of winter, get out into the garden and dig and sow for England - I always do, but maybe not just yet.
Green shoots? Yes please.
I hear what you say about the pause each season brings. I am determined this year to live closer than ever to the year's natural rhythms.
ReplyDeleteHello Jeanne:
ReplyDeleteIt seems to us that there are so many unseasonal green shoots all around here in Brighton. Daffodils are already trumpeting the arrival of spring, but surely, winter has not finished with us yet.
We do so agree that the natural rhythm of the seasons is so very comforting and seem to provide natural breaks from the hurly burly of life just when they are needed.
So, for now, we are sure that you can hibernate just a while longer, although the dreaded tax return waits for nobody!!
The temptation to hibernate is very strong at times isn't it. I find that the walk to the greenhouse to turn the heater on or off when it is very cold is a very good way of keeping in tune with the rhythms of nature through the coldest months, but I haven't needed to do that often this year as it's been so mild.
ReplyDeleteI'm guilty too of wishing time away, but I am trying to change this!
Happy new year!
Jeanne, I think I'm just as bad, wishing January away. It does seem such a harsh month to get through, but isn't it so thrilling to see crocus out in flower and all the green shoots emerging.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeanne,
ReplyDeleteThis is a timely post for me! Your comment, "Time - I sometimes wish it away with alarming flippancy..." is so very true for me as well. I'm looking forward to spring but trying to enjoy the here and now in the cold and long month.
Jackie
What a long month januari is...owwww i need spring more than ever darling....welcome back....love from me...xxx...
ReplyDeleteHello, Jeanne! Welcome back!=]
ReplyDeleteI have nothing clever to say...I'm in the January funk, myself, and so sleepy, at the moment. I, too, realize that this is just how the season swings in this part of the year. No matter how I plan for it and try to avoid it - it's always the same and, eventually, I just stop fighting and drift on the dream. and, is it so terrible to do so, after all? so, I relate wonderfully to everything you've said, except for, the tax return (hubby does it - lucky me!) and...
winter shoots. We are winter, frost bound for, probably, two more months! There is no gardening to be done in the neck of the woods!!!
xo
I think many of us can identify with your thoughts here and for me too Easter is a season to really celebrate I love it so much more than Christmas perhaps because not only is it at a more hopeful time of year but it is also not nearly so commercialised and it comes without all that pressure that so often accompanies Christmas! Green shoots - we have flowers here already so rest assured spring will come and then will be the time for gardening!
ReplyDeleteI have my spring garden in my thoughts but have not yet pulled out the garden journal to begin planning. I have been able to weed and care for my winter garden of lettuce and onions. Which has brought me happiness. I want to have a much larger spring garden this year than weve had for the past five years. So I will need to plan. My growing children are wanting to eat healthy. Finally they have outgrown their teenage junk food stage! They are returning to craving the wholesome organic meals Ive prepared for them since infancy. Our taxes are not due till April...so we have much more time to dread them!
ReplyDeleteAll green is presently hidden under a cloak of white - we're snowed in now and I'm so very glad to be snowed in at home!
ReplyDeleteI too have daffodils out, primroses and snowdrops too and so far Winter has been kind so I am quite enjoying my hibernation. I quite enjoy a break from gardening and planning for the future is fun. I usually get more 'down' in February for some strange reason.
ReplyDeleteDear Jeanne! So pretty your green shoots! Today we have very rainy weather :( and a lot of wind! I don't like so much the wind... but soon it will be arrive the spring :) I send you a big hug from Switzerland and I hope everything is ok by you! LISA LIBELLLE
ReplyDeleteYes, I think we all have days when we will time to move on especially in this season of the year and I do think that our perception of the seasons has diminished over the last few decades. Our garden too is a brown mush of damp, dead foliage and soggy lawns and like you I'm leaving it that way for a little longer. It is good to see you back:)
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to see you again Jeanne.
ReplyDeleteThere is no sign of Spring here -6C and 10cm. of new snow.
Hope you are keeping well.
Susan x
How lovely to read your words of wisdom again Jeanne. Happy 2012! I had a delivery of some seeds that I ordered today and I am dying to sow them but as you say, all things must wait. Those green shoots are well as truly a sign that nature thinks it's mild enough to put out some feelers!!
ReplyDeleteI resonate especially with your thoughts on seasons. This is why I love living on Long Island. We have a nice, long springtime, complete with buds and blossoms. We have a good few months of summer, complete with plenty of seashore breezes to make it bearable. Fall is a joy here, the crisp air and the cornucopia of brilliant turning leaves is intoxicating beyond belief. Wintertime brings snow, of course, but even though it makes driving dangerous, it is beautiful as well.
ReplyDeleteI could never be happy living someplace that doesn't have all four.
Lovely to see you here Jeanee - wishing you a apply year ahead! I'm a master at wasting the time I have. Could this be the year I cane some lifelong habits?!
ReplyDeleteI love the seasons, each is so special in its own unique way. I love living in rhythm with the land.
Diana x
Ps not done my tax return yet either!,
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAck! Didn't mean to mis-spell your name Jeanne!
ReplyDeleteD x
Jeanne, nice to have you back. Have sunny week ahead, Inge
ReplyDeleteOh Happy New Year Jeanne! Good to see you back. As a January child I have to stick up for this much maligned month. The days are slowly lengthening, the snowdrops are out and that "brown mush" will before we know it turn into growing green :)Good luck with the tax return.
ReplyDeleteDear Jeanne,
ReplyDeleteSo much of interest in your words here. First, if you have a moment go visit Elizabeth's blog Welsh Hills Again. Her last post is about time and life and is beautifully written; it echoes some of your thoughts about frittering time away.
Monty Don who suffers, as I'm sure you know, from depression during winter has earmarked February 15 as the first day of spring. So on this day, his wife's birthday, he goes out in the garden whatever the weather, and gets to work. I have decided to adopt that date too. It happens to be my son's birthday.
I think January is mainly for hibernating and dreaming... and hiding from the inevitable gastric flu epidemic!
Best wishes,
Stephanie
Dear Jeanne, nice to see you back posting.;) I am with you on those sentiments when it comes to time and the way we can perceive seasons. They all have a part to play in the cycle of a year.;))
ReplyDeleteI am going to pay a lot of attention to my garden this year and am looking forward to work with our neglected piece of land comes spring. I hope our winter continues being mild.
Have a lovely week dear friend,
xoxo
Hello Jeanne, it's so exciting to see all the new growth. We walked round Chalice well gardens yesterday enjoying all the buds and bulbs.
ReplyDeleteSpring can't be far away! xx
Wow, you sure have a green thumb. I have no idea about how to grow plants, I barely manage with my basilico plant in the balcony. I am following you from Rome, but I am actually from Trapani, Sicily. We are in Rome temporarily.
ReplyDeleteDear Jeanne,
ReplyDeleteyou are back again, I´m so glad! I have often wondered how you were doing and whether you were feeling any better after your sad loss.
Well, January - not really my favourite month, too...Although for me January seems to be a bit of an empty space, the busy Christmas time is over, the garden doesn´t yet call, I can enjoy more spare time.
Due to the mild winter so far, there are a lot of green shoots and signs of a hopefully-not-so-far-away-spring to be seen. :-)
Liebe Grüße, Bärbel
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about wishing time away. January is one of those months I just want to get over. However, I have been trying to use my time wisely planning for the hectic months to come when I will spend my time whingeing that I don't have enough time. From Wellywoman
wellywoman.wordpress.com
It's been so grey and dismal that I really don't feel like going outside just yet! Good to see you though!
ReplyDeleteHi dear Jeanne,
ReplyDeleteI usually feel this way about January too. This year has been a little different for me though, because our weather has been so unusual. Instead of feet of snow we only have inches and it just barely fell and we have had warm and sometimes almost balmy weather here. I am loving it. I see the garden out there waiting for me and Spring. I am getting so much done in the house that gets badly neglected when I garden. So all in all my winter blues haven't been all that blue this year. Thank goodness because I usually hate January!
hugs from here...
I think the green shoots are emerging Jeanne - some a a little too early! I do hope you're well.
ReplyDelete