Even though it happens every year, waking up on the morning of the first hard frost is always an amazing event. Seeing everything transformed from the bright hues of fall into a scene of glittering white makes the inevitable onset of winter more welcome somehow. We trade off those long days of working out in the garden for cozy evenings by the woodstove and shift all the outward energy inward. It’s a necessary resting time for Nature and ourselves.
Everything out in the garden was frozen and still early this morning, with the stark white hazelnut orchard spreading out below, the moon still glowing above, and all the surviving winter greens curved and stiff in the shapes the cold had bent them.
The plain brown leaf mulch had taken on a little pizazz with sparkling ice crystal adornment.
The leaves of the garden sage, once unassuming, were covered in hundreds of glittering gems.
The rainbow chard was showing off it’s wild rainbow stems against the white sheen on the leaves.
As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one enjoying this magical wintry morning. Our kitten, Della Mae, was having some rowdy fun exploring her first frost. After getting over the initial shock of cold paws, she commenced to tearing around the yard, running up and down the trunks of trees with a wild look in her eye.
As nature is shifting gears from the busy fall into winter’s stillness, I’m working on shifting my own gears to long abandoned handwork and various projects. It’s a good time to reacquaint myself with wool, yarn, scraps of sweaters, and all the natural materials I’ve collected over the year to keep my hands busy when the days are short and the nights are long.
As for Della Mae, time to find those catnip mice hidden away under the couch. I don’t think she has any plans to shift gears.
Leave a Reply