A brilliant coating of hoar frost whitened the trees this morning. 
Category: seasons
January
Winter activities…love January!
I finished this baby blanket for today’s baby shower. Used the Greyson pattern from Moogly crochet.
And I baked these two loaves of sourdough bread this morning, one in the Dutch oven (preheated) and one in the Mason Cash terracotta loaf pan (not preheated). Both turned out great! We put a bowl of water on the floor of the oven to generate steam, which I think helped the uncovered loaf rise so high. My sourdough starter behaved like a champ for these loaves.
Sam ordered a bread slicer which helps us cut perfect slices for sandwiches and toast.
Greens, 2020
We did some work on the raised beds in the hoophouse today. Some were pretty much gone by and had to be cut back severely (arugula, mizuna). Others needed a trim, removal of dead tips and rotting base leaves. We got a bag of fresh greens for our trouble. Then tucked everybody back under their row covers. Supposed to drop into the teens tonight. The chickens got a bundle of clippings.
Pin cherry in bloom
I’m trying to identify more plants growing in my area. Starting with this tree, which I love to see in bloom. I realized we have a little nursery of young ones (also blooming) inside our garden fence behind the shed.
The guide “Forest Trees of Maine” says about this tree:
…not used commercially and has little value except as a protection and cover for the soil on recent clearings or burned areas.
Whiteness
Snow is falling thickly and drifting off the trees periodically in great puffs of white powder.
I’m not thinking about plants or gardening.
I’ve been doing a lot of stitching, some drawing and painting, making some books, reading some books.
Walking in the winter weather. Taking care of the chickens.
It’s been a quiet, peaceful time.
When we return from South Africa in early April, it will be time to plant in earnest.
Let us sing winter
Henry David Thoreau:
January 29, 1854
A very cold morning. Thermometer, or mercury, 18º below zero.
January 30, 1854
This morning, though not so cold by a degree or two as yesterday morning, the cold has got more into the house, and the frost visits nooks never known to be visited before… The winter, cold and bound out as it is, is thrown to us like a bone to a famishing dog, and we are expected to get the marrow out of it…the winter was not given to us for no purpose. We must thaw its cold with our genialness.
I knew a crazy man who walked into an empty pulpit one Sunday and, taking up a hymn-book, remarked: “We have had a good fall for getting in corn and potatoes. Let us sing Winter.” So I say, “Let us sing winter.” What else can we sing, and our voices be in harmony with the season?
—from Henry David Thoreau,
The Journal 1837–1861
farewell seedlings
We covered up the seedlings in the garden in anticipation of cold temps over the next few nights. This is an experimental bed. I don’t think they’ll all make it, maybe none of them will. Cilantro, lacinato kale, red lettuce, spinach. They are under a layer of plastic, a layer of agribon, and a few inches of hay mulch.