There is not always a 'thaw' in January, nor do all spring-like days come in winter come in January. As the old-fashioned almanacs would put it, scattering the words down the page for January:
About - this – time – expect – several – warm – days.
Even if the 'about this time' were the last of February, the country people would regard it as 'our January that, only about a month late this year!'
The first of these warm days is often cloudy, and so misty and cloudy that the ground seems to steam. The snow that may have fallen two or three weeks ago is nearly melted. Then how slushy it is! - how 'disagreeable getting about' the older folks would say.
From St. Nicholas magazine, January 1904
Ohhh SO gray, gray - GRAY! I'm trying so hard to not let it get to me, but two weeks of THIS. Its bordering on ridiculous. I've always loved having SEASONS but I'm beginning to feel like a mushroom, I swear my skin is turning into paste! I still make myself get outside. I heard a broadcaster on CBC radio the other day and he was saying (not that I entirely agree with him) that great art is only made in anything other than happiness... so this depression SHOULD make me really artistically inclined. Well, it DID inspire me to write the following poem after yesterday's dreary walk:
grungey, brackish dirt exposed from beneath white scabs of retreating snow -
the soil giving off a sharp acrid reek, like a complaint
dull gray clouds pressing down petulantly into the valley
to meet the cold steely gray of ice on the lake
cold, scratching fingers of bare tree limbs standing forlorn
the air, sluggish and stubborn pushes to keep one indoors
outside, small birds feast furiously on whatever they might forage
hawks wait, there's a bird-eat-bird meaness in these half-dark days
a lone plane growls through the duskiness – like an insect trying to migrate to sunshine
day morphs into evening and then to night with very little discernment
dawn and dusk a mere shade darker than the day
longing for sunshine
This is what the weathermen/women say. But I know who's REALLY in control, so I'm taking it to the Lord in prayer...
God is mighty! He is able to deliver;
Faith can victor be in every trying hour;
Fear and care and sin and sorrow defeated
By our faith in God's almighty, conquering power.
Have faith in God, the sun will shine,
Though dark the clouds may be today;
His heart has planned your path and mine,
Have faith in God, have faith alway.
~ Author Unknown
♥♥♥♥♥
And so, to brighten up YOUR day, I've created a second version of the Wreath Frame - Enjoy!
(and send SUN, please *wink*)
