Galatea enjoying apricity

I wandered downtown in the sun a few days ago and thought Galatea does not look cold at all. The sun did give some warmth. This is the Haller Fountain in Port Townsend.

Our Anna’s hummingbirds can overwinter. Tough little creatures and certainly they are not afraid of bigger birds. Meanwhile any sun makes it clear that I should do some spring window washing! This bush is outside my writing window, with the feeder stuck to the window. The hummers will guard it.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: apricity.

thinking of spring

I have a very happy pineapple sage plant. It does not care that my street is a bit of a wind tunnel up from sea level. The roses don’t like the wind howling up and tomatoes really hate it. It is happily putting out new leaves even though we could have more freezing weather and even snow and snot and ice. (Snot was a typo, but it comes with snow and ice, right?) No flowers yet but soon and soon.

For Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Small miracle

Notice the coat. What is missing? Here is a cropped earlier photograph:

We go for a lovely walk in Rockcreek Park in Maryland. It is very cold and the creek is half frozen. My son goes down to the creek and throws rocks on the ice.

The ice makes wonderful sounds and the rocks mostly do not go through the ice. It is in beautiful patterns.

We get cold and are ready to head back. My son realizes that he has lost the button. We spend some time looking for a brown button in brown leaves. No button. We are colder.

When I look at the photographs later, they confirm that the button was lost on that walk!

The next day my ex-husband’s father’s second spouse comes to brunch. She is the last of the six grandparents. We have a lovely brunch. She is a potter and a landscape architect and is helping my son and daughter in law with their garden and yard. After brunch we walk back to the creek, keeping our eyes peeled for the button. She has a button collection but not that button. He might find one on the internet. Or he could contact Pendleton, since it is a Pendleton coat. Very handsome.

At the creek we search in the leaves and along the water, all of us. No button. I cross the little bridge, seeing a lump on the ice the right size and color. I clamber down the bank. “No,” I say, “Oh! Yes! Found it!” The brown button is sitting on the ice. It must have shot across the ice when he bent down to pick up a rock! “Hooray!” we all say. A small miracle for the season. Happy winter holidays and prayers for those lost.

Winter bless us

Winter bless us year end dark and freezing
winter turn us inwards prayer for joy
prayer for joy for young ones all are seizing
others mourn loved deaths, eschewing toys
darkness let us settle loving all
silence let us turn our thoughts to peace
walk in wind and birds, iced trees so tall
few are out to gently walk the streets
the frozen ground holds lives that lie in wait
in freezing seeds hear the call and know
let every human drop their arms and hate
while seeds lie in wait to grow
let winter’s silence fill our hearts with joy
let peace descend, war melt to children’s toys

____________________________________

A poem for Christine Goodenough after reading her Winter Delights.

be careful out there

Whew, the storm hitting in the United States is scary, with the really low temperatures, some people having lost power, and temperatures dropping super fast. Be careful! Here is my house, looking cosy in the snow this week. So far so good with power.

Ok, want to guess what the lights are supposed to be?

Please stay warm and be careful. In the southern states people don’t have the winter gear. I had some patients who were living in homes with no heat, so I hope they can go to a warming station.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: icicle.