Hibernating During the Dreary Days of February of 2025

 All the major holidays have passed offering relief and reprieve from all expectations or disappointments.  Weather is a winter of chilly days, frozen earth, and going within both my mind and the old homestead. Dripping faucets, leaky windows, and many projects staring me down begging for my sleepy attention. No one has come around leaving me unmotivated to impress or entertain.  

Having 100's of packs of seeds and bags of cleaned seed-heads will be my focus this weekend if I can endure the chilliness of the south facing windows and the dim over head light - good for my post concussive syndrome and intolerance to bright lights, but not so helpful to this blurriness of vision and difficulties reading words without a magnifying glass. 

Looking back at memories from this day but several years in the past, I seem to do things by intuitive guidance the same time each year.  And forcing Spring bulbs in February seems to go back to my father, William Percival Trestrail, and how in his last months of life, I forced bulbs indoors for him to witness the re-birth of Spring that I knew he'd never see.  Dad died February 22 1985.  Yet, he was able to smell the essence of aromatic flowers like hyacinths, tulips, and daffodils.  This brought happiness to him in his last weeks of life.  
 

Today's hyacinths are breathtakingly fragrant.  Uplifting my spirits in anticipation of Spring and warmer days. 

Growing 4 window boxes of salad greens and curly kale under grow lights. 

Growing in the window box of curly kale are nasturtiums that I didn't think would flower, but they have much to my great delight.  An edible treat, indeed, and there are many of them. 

This will be a Saturday, February 15 2025's seed sorting, cleaning & testing seed day!! I'll need to bundle up in the dining room as the old windows are very drafty and the oil has almost run out of the tank.  I may have to go without until next Tuesday as this is a holiday weekend.  

Spring, please come soon ! 

Meanwhile, my coping mechanisms revolve around the long & skillful ability to put ingredients together and make food magically appear on the table of the highest quality and the most healthy as I believe that I can - to partially heal my ailing injuries with nutrition and rest. This is homemade organic, NON GMO whole grain EINKORN whole grain flour bread.  No chemicals or preservatives. The bread is soft and delicious. The crust is perfect.  It's going to pair nicely with some homemade lentil soup with lots of vegetables and spices, herbs. 

Heartwarming, nourishing and delicious.  So grateful I learned how to cook when I was in my young 20's.  I don't buy any take out foods or prepared frozen meals at the supermarket.  Everything is cooked with love from scratch.  

It's time for a hot bowl of soup and a wedge of delicious bread. 

Many blessings to all my friends and family.