The Rest of January

Once the snow melted, our month was everything that it should be. I love that empty fresh space that January occupies. It might just be in my head, but once I make it through the cluttered and busy holiday season and there are a few months yet before Spring gardening needs to happen, I feel light and free. I love the months when I can pause a little and regather myself.

Of course, now those empty months aren't so empty as they used to be, because I spend them preparing for the Spring Market in Nashville. But it's different, somehow.

After taking down the Christmas decorations, I left much of my usual decor in their boxes. My window sills are mostly bare, my mantle is sparsely adorned. With the big braided rug gone from the living room, I am enjoying a sense of space that is refreshing. My house isn't very big. Each room is *just barely* big enough for the furniture that occupies it. Add in a bunch of clutter, no matter how carefully curated, and I start to feel a bit claustrophobic. No more. At least until I open a few certain closets, that is...

I don't usually comment individually on my photos, but this next one needs a little special mention. It was taken by my 11 year old. I was de-lighting the tree, sorting through the strings, getting ready to box them up for another year. "Stop, Mama! Don't move!" he said, then snapped this picture. I love watching the creativity coming out in my babies. Didn't he do a great job?

The Rest of February

I didn't take very many pictures in February.

I guess my nose was too close to the grindstone, getting ready for Market, to stop and document the world around me. It could also be that February is the most difficult month for me to take pictures of. Here in the Oregon foothills, it is so dark and damp and not much outside my window shows signs of life until the very last few weeks, when most of the following photos were taken.

We get excited about the smallest things in February, like a big display of hot cocoa, produced by our very own Boyd's Coffee Company, or a rare peek of sunbeams. Forced blooms, baby sheep, Valentine bouquets, and smiles hidden in the bubbles of a freshly brewed mug of coffee. It really is the simple things, that can make this life transcend ordinary, as long as we aren't too busy to notice.

All the Rest

More storms and power outages, the last classes of Fall semester, good friends, flooding in the valleys, Christmas books and Christmas ornament making and Christmas program at church. The month of December has been full and good in every way possible.

These two... always these two...