By Jill Williams
What would it be like to live in a world without spring…. a world without seasons where everything was always perfect and unchanging? A world without the tide of happenings, surprises and disasters…. the push and pull of memory and desire that wash through our temperate gardens every year. “–Katherine Swift
Or to put it another way, in this climate there is no spring without winter. It seems that we have been paying a rather steep price for spring in the latter part of last year and the beginning of the new year. Snow that stayed in November has made winter feel endless this year.
The month of January is, of course, named after the Roman god Janus who is represented with two faces; one looking forward and one looking back. Forgive me if I don’t dwell too long on the looking back. Last season brought us heat, drought, fire risk and the biggest ice storm in many years.
But I think that for self preservation alone it’s necessary see the glass as half full even when that’s difficult. And it has been difficult. One of the few positives about last year that I can think of is that for the first time in decades there was no fall ladybug swarming.
This winter I’m sharing the house with maybe ten lady-bugs. When I find one, I carefully pick it up and put it on a plant. In past years hundreds of ladybugs lurked behind pictures on the wall and behind books on shelves. And every-where really. It is truly a blessing to not have to deal with a house full of them. There are also fewer cluster flies, another blessing when blessings have been a bit thin on the ground.
To ward off cabin fever which will no doubt come a bit earlier than usual this year I have kept a few of those wonderful glossy English gardening magazines. It feels like cheating winter a bit to sit by the heat of the wood stove and look at pictures of mass plantings of colourful spring tulips. I would never want a mass planting of tulips; they are for my imagination only. I will probably buy a few new magazines when I’m truly fed up with winter. I like The English Garden, Gardens Illustrated and the slightly retro Country Life.
Another good way toward off the inevitable cabin fever is to read a good book. I have been enjoying a very funny book called Cabin by Patrick Hutchison. There are vast numbers of cabin books but very few of them are funny. This one is subtitled Off the Grid Adventures with a Clue-less Craftsman. That gives a bit of an idea about where he’s coming from; I like that he has no ego about admitting that he and his friends didn’t know very much when they started their cabin project. To learn, it’s necessary to admit that you don’t know and he has no problem doing this.
I laughed out loud when he wrote about going to a woodstove place to enquire about getting his small wood stove installed. He was quoted a price that was just less than what he paid for the cabin and property. It reminded me of an experience I had years ago when I went to what turned out to be a very snooty wood stove place in search of a chimney installation kit for my own cabin. The salesman was really rude and he looked truly horrified at the very idea of a cabin. He made a face like a cat’s bum when I told him what I was looking for. Fortunately I later found exactly what I was looking for at a big box store and the salesman was helpful and didn’t make any faces at me. I hadn’t thought about that unfortunate experience for years and it was fun to be reminded.
I found Cabin to be a real page turner and it has a positive arc as the author documents all the skills he learns. Even if you have no intention of ever building anything or fixing up a cabin, this book is entertaining and a good winter fireside read.
A possible companion read to Cabin is A Place of my Own by Michael Pollan. This is one of my favourite books and it’s at the complete opposite end of the scale to the Patrick Hutchison book. Michael Pollan documents the building of his own vastly overbuilt writing cabin. He hires an architect and a good carpenter to build it. He also overthinks everything and so the book ends up being an entertaining history of building and architecture and design.
Even in deepest January there are signs of the lengthening days. Two indoor pots of the succulent Echeveria have already started growing their flower stalks. They actually start doing this is December. By the time they have developed their graceful sprays of little red flowers it will be time to put them out on the porch for the summer. The hummingbirds love them and isn’t it good to think about the hummingbirds while the world is white and frozen?
The sun is shining as I write this even though it’s very cold outside. Which one of the poets was it who said if winter comes can spring be far behind?
Happy New Year. Let us only look at January’s forward looking face.