READY ... SO READY

Well, Mother Nature, we're all good now.  We're over this winter thing.  It's been nice, but let's move on, okay?  I want to go outside without worrying about body parts going brittle and breaking off.

I apologise to all the people who didn't get to spend a month in a tropical setting.  I don't expect even a moment of sympathy from you, and I'm not asking for it.  But, I tell you what: that sort of trip is not a cure for the winter-is-too-long blues.  I don't think it even rates as an inoculation against this condition's worst symptoms.  Having recently taken part in a study on whether spending the month of January in Australia helps, my conclusion is it only makes a person wimpier. 

Having said that, should anyone want to study the matter further, I respectfully submit my name to participate in subsequent studies.  Even with the danger of developing enhanced wimpiness tendencies, I will take one for the team.

But meanwhile, back in Saskatchewan, I'm totally over this winter thing.

It happens every year about the beginning of February.  This feeling of being trapped inside because it's too cold, and worse yet - there's nothing to do even if you do go outside.  I want to garden!  I want to plant flowers!  I want to weed!  I want to hill potatoes!  I want to pick berries!  I want to mow grass!  The only job that winter offers me is shovelling off the deck and we have had so little snow this winter than my six year old grandson did this job in ten minutes on Saturday.  A walk with a 40 below wind chill factor is not in the cards - sorry Turbo.

Just as house plants begin to detect the lengthening of daylight hours, I'm pretty sure something stirs in a gardener's brain at the same time.  Plants start to put out new shoots, seeds itch to germinate, gardeners page through nursery catalogues and envision where they will put all the new things they want to buy.

While scrolling through Facebook the other day I noticed a new group - Gardenering in Saskatchewan - and decided that maybe hanging out with like-minded people would be a positive move.  You know: strength in numbers, and all that ...

Talk about being overwhelmed.  Instantly there was no room on my news feed for anything else.  the membership of this group was beyond anything I had imagined.  They wanted to talk about indoor plants and outdoor plants and when to start them indoors so they could move them outdoors.  Trees and flowers and herbs and bulbs and onion seeds and lavender and birds getting drunk on fermented fruit.  Don't get me wrong - these are the very things one would expect to find on a gardening site - it's just that there was so much of it.  I'm no longer sure that talking about gardening is a cure for gardening, but as of this week I think it's a cure that a person can overdose on.  I hit the "snooze for a month" button.

So I'm trying to keep myself busy with other things.  Yesterday I decided to tear the bed apart and wash it all.  Not only did this give me something to do but the challenge of getting the duvet back into it's cover gave me some exercise for the day.  My longings for spring didn't go away though.  As I finished up the job and was fluffing the pillows back into place I sighed knowing that this job was only half done.  No bed is totally fresh unless everything has been hung out on the clothes line to dry ... and that won't be for another month, at least.

I'm so done, Mother Nature.  So done.