As Winter Covers Me, The Seasons Change

It’s snowing! Winter has finally arrived on the High Desert, just in time for Thanksgiving. I’m trying a new rub for the turkey using some cannabis-infused coconut oil as a base along with herbs I grew this summer. I’m cooking my standard Butterball turkey in my new convection range. The oven is purple inside and it’s the first time I’ve had one without an element to ruin. It makes clean up a breeze.

The ducks hover together in the clear portion of the pond, swimming about as the winter ice melts. When we left for the walk this morning, it had just begun to snow. It was dry and brushed easily off our coats as we walked down the road. But then the wind began blowing from the north, which is never a good sign, and the snow began to stick to us and everything else. We turned back early for home.

A few flowers still cling to life, the alyssym appearing as small white tufts under the snow, while vegetables continue growing in the greenhouse. Winter carrots, gourmet beets, lettuce, kale, parsley, and radishes give us welcome relief from buying produce at the grocery store. And I refuse to eat a tomato from anywhere other than my garden. They just don’t taste right otherwise.

As the winter storm approached, my husband attached the front blade to the lawn tractor yesterday. We purchased it last winter after the two weeks we spent unable to drive my Camry down our nearly 800 foot driveway. The snow was two feet deep, which made hauling the garbage up and checking the mail interesting. Had I still had my Rav 4, I would have been fine, but the Camry is seriously low to the ground. But it’s a hybrid and I love it. So I bought the blade. Of course we could have repaired the farm tractor we have that has an actual blade heavy enough to build a road, but that’s a subject for another blog post.

But for today, I spent time in the first snow, letting winter cover me as I have each year since I was four years old. My family had moved to Alaska of all places, and as a child born in California, snow was the most amazing sight I had ever seen or experienced. Feeling the snow signifies movement into another season, the turning of the Wheel, as life slows down and stillness begins, eventually giving way to the genesis of Spring.

And while the snow falls, I’ll drink a nice cup of tea, review my seed catalogs and plan next year’s garden.

~Blessings to all!