Winter Solstice

Through the entire twelve month cycle, we ate a great variety of fresh food.  It was garden fresh from the first thaw in February-March to the heavy snows of December.  The balance of time it came from an outside vegetable cellar.  By following the seasons, we got a succession of foods- each at its peak.  We enjoyed each in turn.  We tired of none, but always looked forward to its coming in the new growing season.
The Good Life- Scott and Helen Nearing 

Well, here we are.  The day's almost done, and my ass is still intact.  The world may not have ended, but Winter sure came in with a roar.

     I woke up this morning to the sound of raindrops splattering on glass and wind roaring through the attic.  We've gotten almost 3 inches of rain in the last week, too.  But it's all uphill from here.  The days will start getting a little noticeably longer from here on out, albeit a little colder. 

     I think the chickens are getting a little closer to laying.  The Grump has been doing some submissive squatting whenever we approach her, and Naomi said the Grump's been cuddling into a little nest directly in the center of the coop.  She'll figure out what the nest box is for when the time comes.

    I still haven't gotten down to the garden to take pictures of the hoophouse setup, nor the kale slowly creeping along inside it, but I did manage to get some batteries for the camera.  That's at least a step in the right direction.  My beet sprouting project (pictured above) is still working out well.  We've been enjoying fresh beet greens every week or so.  The tops aren't growing at record rates, but it's nice to see a little color.  I've got some basil growing in a pot that's slowly making some progress, too.  This time last year, I was thinking about starting a few flats of onion seeds.  I think this year I'll wait a little longer until I start them, as they seemed to be imprisoned indoors last year for far too long and got overcrowded in their little flats.

     So far, I've managed to keep this blogging project going for almost a full year.  Aside from occasionally keeping up with this blog, I've got copious notes, diagrams, lists, spreadsheets, and other documentation of our garden progress.  Seed catalogs for 2013 have started rolling in.  I eagerly look forward to the arrival of some of my favorites, with anticipation of discovering varieties I've overlooked in past seasons, helpful tidbits of information, and of course, gorgeous pictures that uplift my winter soul. 

    Finally, some things worth sharing today are featured below.  The first is the trailer to a beautiful documentary that we watched earlier this evening entitled Journey of the Universe, and it came out of Yale University.  Its message of the absolute beauty and power of life on Earth is very inspiring to me.

      And finally, as I do every year on this day,  I listened to the song below.  Although I don't willingly seek such a bleak message these days as I once did, it's still fitting as a welcome to a time of the slowing of otherwise prolific life.  The last line seems particularly familiar, as I look to the year's bounty to keep us going through the season. 
The winter tears the earth apart, lets hope we see it through.