Cold Days Of Winter & Baking

Yesterday was cold and gray. Those are the days when arthritis really flares up. But it was nice and warm and cozy inside my apartment.

I look outside and it seems a little desolate. The plants are dry and brown; as are the leaves.

It looks so different from just a few months ago, when plants and herbs were healthy and green. And flowers were still blooming their many colors.

Baking Banana Bread:

I baked a loaf of banana bread yesterday afternoon. The top was crisp and tasty.

What light there was filtered through the kitchen window while I sat and worked.

The lamps were turned on, as they usually are in the kitchen during the daylight hours. The soft flow from a lamp always gives me a comfy cozy feeling of being right where I need to be.

Especially during the winter months. When what is abundant outdoors is the cold weather with cumulus clouds floating overhead.

The squirrels still run around acting silly, but the other animals are in hibernation mode, I suppose. They’ll come out when the weather warms up and the perennials begin to ease back out of the earth.

John & Boomer:

John came by with Boomer to get a dog treat. He says when he lets Boomer out of the gate Boomer runs straight to my patio door.

The sweet scent of baking filled the air and he could smell it.

I told him I’d let him know when the banana bread was done and had cooled. And he could come fetch a few slices.

Then Felix the maintenance man came to fix the hot and cold faucet handles that weren’t working properly. Before he left, I handed him a foil-wrapped slice of the banana bread to take with him back out into the cold.

The Sounds I Hear:

The only sound I hear right now is the humming of the refrigerator. When the guy upstairs is home and his TV is loud, I yearn for this silence.

It is an easy and peaceful stillness. The absence of sound is, I suppose, like the tree falling in the forest. Does anyone hear it?

A summer sound from my childhood is of sitting in a boat. Hearing waves lap against it as the boat moved steadily across the water.

Why is it that sounds with a uniform movement lulls and relaxes us, I wonder? What shift does that make in our brain?

Each season has its sights and smells and sounds.

Springtime brings the sound of birds chirping and insects flying about and hitting the screen door.

Summer brings the sound of cicadas and children outdoors playing and shouting to one another. The sound of thunderstorms and rain pounding the roof.

If only springtime could last longer. Spring is one of those seasons you don’t really want to let go of. So different from winter, and the weary feeling you begin to have after months of stifling cold weather.

Of donning coats when you go outside and shrugging them off when you come home again.

What Spring Brings:

Spring is a season of hope. When the herbs begin to grow again and bring their pungent scent back into the air.

The sigh of relief when the windows can be opened to air out stuffy rooms.

The light shifting and slanting a little differently across the wall and ceiling.

Sitting outside in the evenings waiting for darkness and the stars to appear.

Going barefoot. Feeling the sun kiss your head and shoulders.

And then when the summer heat has fully taken hold, I grow tired of the heat and I yearn for the coolness of fall. When leaves begin to fall and plants fade away and animals scurry for shelter.

These seasons are a clock that guides our lives. Time keeps moving forward no matter what else is happening in the world.

The shifting of the seasons remind us that life is full of changes.

That’s the beauty of life. Learning to embrace each day as it comes.

“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”
― Yoko Ono