I try hard to, shall we say, “stay on course” during the cold weather. I try to keep busy, but frustrations build when the shop is too cold to heat in January and early February. That’s why I seize on things like making maple syrup at the middle and end of February and March. It gives me hope that spring will come. It’s why, in March, a flurry of seed planting, garden cleanup, and other activities get me outside as New England slowly wakes up from winter.
I officially graduate from winter gloom to spring hopefulness in April as the first ephemeral flowers appear in the woods. The last clots of unwanted and unloved snow are gone, and I welcome even the weeds.
Like a traffic officer, lurking in the background is the reminder to slow down. Make it last. And remember that it is limited.
Like the carefully measured maple syrup you pour on your ice cream, it also is limited in how much you receive.
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That’s it stay the course and follow those seasons, enjoying every moment possible.
I have to admit I usually have some ice cream with my maple syrup though! It’s a bit too delicious that stuff.
Wait….One measures their syrup? Not up here in Vermont’s Northeast kingdom we don’t.
Here’s how we do it:
https://rlavalette.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/sugar-on-snow-2/
Well Ron…I have a very small sugarbush, and don’t like to buy. So yeah we measure out what we produce.
Ice cream, maple syrup, and spring. It doesn’t get much better than that.
absolutely!
May must be happy days for you, Lou.
It’s an absolute favorite, Tracy.
We’re the opposite. I graduate from winter joy to spring dread to summer gloom. 🤣 I did lately discover that yogurt, maple syrup and bananas make a tasty dessert.
Yeah. But your ideas of a native garden show some embrace of the warmth. I don’t really hate the winter as much as I have an activity problem during it.
And Yay for yogurt, banana, and Maple syrup.
I can’t make summer go away so I make it work for me as much as I can, but when that late September cool hits, oh man… 🙂