Hiber-nation

This is a view of a frozen back yard from January of 2007. We could have called this yard our own but we settled on a place in the same town, a little farther north. It was a big back yard with giant weeping elder trees and beyond the red barn is a large wooded hill that crawls with deer and to the left the lot takes an "L" shape with plenty of room for a garden.

The house staked to the angled lot had some issues with the first floor bathroom being mysteriously supported by home-made stanchions in the basement. The top floor was a separate suite complete with a little kitchen and the whole house smelled like french fries. The busy street sloped rather severely on either side of the driveway making egress only slightly terrifying. Yes, in hind sight it seems kind of creepy but these situations were surmountable.

Here in the dog days of winter, after the Christmas blitz and the wonder of the first snowfall, the deep freeze has set upon us. I find it hard to be motivated beyond what is required for simple existence. For instance, our kitchen should be painted but to go to the paint store when it's 5 degrees just seems impossible, so I cook and eat and watch sports. No great sin, I suppose, to hibernate.

The views out my window look a lot like the one in the picture; bleak, frozen and lifeless, but if I look really hard I can see a blue plastic pool being filled with a green hose and yellow marigolds popping out through a tiny white fence in front of the garage. Baskets of purple flowers swing off the garage eve in the hot breeze and angry blue jays ruffle the feathers of lesser warm blooded aviators. If I look really hard I can see hope.