Winter CSA challenges #phenology

The folks at the Winter Community Supported Agriculture farm couldn't get their truck started this morning. We had driven to the drop off / pick up location in temps of -19, so we were disappointed, but not surprised when we got an email notifying us that they were warming and charging the battery and hoped to be starting in an hour or so.

Coffee Talk, Taylors Falls

Photo by J. Harrington

Our pick up location is in Taylor's Falls. We were at Coffee Talk, enjoying a cappuccino with the Better Half, when the email arrived. Rather than continue to sit drinking caffeinated beverages and hope for the best, we decided to do other Saturday chores and return later to pick up our box of vegetables.

saying "good-bye" until next year

Photo by J. Harrington

Meanwhile, back on the home front, the Daughter Person and the Son-In-Law were busy decommissioning the Christmas tree. Most years we try to hold on to it until the Feast of the Epiphany. This year we bought early so it's coming down early. The blooms on the first amaryllis are starting to fade, although the second one looks like it might open this week. All in all, we're sliding from the Christmas season into the New Year.

Despite the bitterly cold temperatures and even worse wind chills, many Minnesotans are going about seasonal and daily activities both inside and out. We even spent some time this morning chipping ice from the unheated rim of the heated bird bath. At the moment, the only downside we see with starting a new year is that next year is when we promised ourselves that we'd finish labeling all our photos and develop a better attitude. We just hope we haven't set ourselves up for failure. At least they're not New Year's resolutions. We made one of those years ago to never make another. It's the only New Year's resolution we've ever kept. Time to go see if our CSA shares box is ready yet. Tonight, we'll enjoy squash soup made from the contents of the last shares box we picked up.

[UPDATE: spinach, root vegetables, garlic, fruit cake? and other goodies are being safely put in our pantry. Delivery completed.]

                     Bleak Weather

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Dear love, where the red lillies blossomed and grew,

The white snows are falling;

And all through the wood, where I wandered with you,

The loud winds are calling;

And the robin that piped to us tune upon tune,

Neath the elm—you remember,

Over tree-top and mountain has followed the June,

And left us—December.

Has left, like a friend that is true in the sun,

And false in the shadows.

He has found new delights, in the land where he's gone,

Greener woodlands and meadows.

What care we? let him go! let the snow shroud the lea,

Let it drift on the heather!

We can sing through it all; I have you—you have me,

And we’ll laugh at the weather.

The old year may die, and a new one be born

That is bleaker and colder;

But it cannot dismay us; we dare it—we scorn,

For love makes us bolder.

Ah Robin! sing loud on the far-distant lea,

Thou friend in fair weather;

But here is a song sung, that’s fuller of glee,

By two warm hearts together.

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