This winter has felt so much longer than usual. The weather from Siberia obliterated our snow and sent us high winds, regularly plunging us down to -13’C without wind chill. Everything simply froze solid. The only things that could be seen to move were patches of ice on higher ground, that melted in the sun only to re-freeze lower down and the deer, in gentle search for that water. Then came the snow which encased us in a thick white shell, with ice underneath.

When the thaw finally came, you could sense the relief from the land and the survivors of this particularly brutal freeze. The sky invented a new shade of blue just for the occasion and the smell from the earth as I walked in the sunshine was the best smell I think I’ve ever experienced. It was vital. It told me how grateful it was.

The much needed sunshine percolated all but the coldest of places and the soil softened. There was a chorus being sung that I couldn’t quite hear, but the cells of my body danced to it.

This was probably my favourite sight as I walked: mouse trails, made underneath the snow, leading them safely from burrow to burrow. For everyone to see, now that the snow has gone. Evidence that although the earth appears to be asleep, Gaia is always very much alive: that there is beauty where there is mud and light where there is darkness. I needed to be reminded of that.

The dogs and I walked for hours listening to melt waters run and animals move. Spring is coming.

Art news: I’ve been working hard on printing my artwork onto wildflower seeded card so that cards can be sent and then planted. My first batch of paper is already used up and several cards have sold out but I’ll be ready in the next few days. You can find what I’m producing so far on Etsy. I have another drawing underway too, so watch out for that one soon.

Finally, as the days grow longer and the warmer air moves across the land, our memories of the harshness of the winter will fade and I’m reminded of this poem by L R Knost.

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.
All things break. And all things can be mended.
Not with time, as they say, but with intention.
So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.
The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”

I wish you lighter days.