Good morning gardeners and friends and welcome to the week of Winter Solstice. The magical time of the year when we have multiple celebrations to explain a planet orbiting the sun on a slightly skewed axis, before we knew that is what was going on. Don’t get me wrong, I am totally involved with spirituality. In fact, my favorite quote picked up in recovery rooms is “I am a spiritual being having a human experience”.
Growing up in a small retail bookshop family I viewed Christmas as a very busy selling/wrapping/delivering season. I started early in the fall making bows on our bow-making machine. I did a lot of heat stamping Christmas cards. There was a lot of receiving/unpacking/sorting/shelving of books and gifts. I did some sales, but my forte was wrapping gifts. We had a wrapping station where I spent a lot of time wrapping piles of books.
There was a lot of adrenaline. We kept the shop open Christmas eve until the last shopper was done, then went to Dad’s folks for dinner and gifts. Christmas morning at home with our family, then Church followed by a big feast at our house for extended family. We sandwiched in all the church stuff at our local liberal Lutheran Church between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The day after Christmas was back to business.
I don’t miss retail.
We have had a run of cold dry weather here in the Pacific Northwest. I have finished with the tree and shrub pruning. I am moving and sorting my various perennials. I am planting my first pansies. I have a bunch of geraniums in the basement wintering.
I am definitely on the retirement glide path. I will take case assignments for indigent defense contract with the State through the end of the year. Once I hit 12/29 at 5:00 pm I will get no new cases. I will be responsible for taking all my caseload to completion. My goal is to have most of the routine stuff done by spring break, all wrapped up by Labor Day. We’ll see.
There already is a noticeable decline in my time at work. I am spending it in the yard/greenhouse/grow room.
Here’s what it looks like around here right now.
I have to laugh at folks who tell me deer don’t graze. The four of them are spending a lot of time on the new grass in the field. So much of the browse goes away in winter, they are herbivores, there is lots of grass, they eat. I have an amusing hunting story about that.
My sister is here from Utah. Mom is doing better. We are going to the coast today to see my cousins’ new home in Waldport. They took most of Mom’s furniture when she moved into assisted living last spring and just got it moved into their new home. Clam chowder and garlic toast for lunch.