02-01-2025 Just January

 I know that anyone looking closely at this post will see that I wrote it on the 5th of February,  I almost didn't write a post for January, but I needed to be sure that the big black books that I publish every year didn't have a glaring empty spot for the first month of 2025.  

At the moment, I am watching more snowfall, with a lot of rain mixed in.  As is often the case, there was no snow at Christmas, no snow throughout January, and then February blew in like an ice demon with more snow than we have seen here in Grants Pass since we have lived here.  

At the moment, Interstate 5 is at a crawl or a standstill, depending on when you look at the drone footage or the trip check cameras.  It is so cold and damp and icy and wet outside that I can barely make myself open a door to give the hummingbirds some warm food.  But all this is for another story, one that I may completely forget by the time I am through with what is hopefully a warm and sunny February.

For whatever reason, (pick your choice, lack of sunlight, gray skies, politics, cold weather pains,) I have been somewhat depressed this month.  I am not normally a depressive personality but found myself waking every morning with an oppressive feeling of doom.  Sometimes I would wake in the night realizing that I had been crying in my sleep.  Mo is much more evenly balanced than I am, and yet she has been very patient with this gray pall that has hung over me for much of the month. 

It was so bad that I actually called the doctor asking for some help, maybe an antidepressant.  I have never taken one, and he prescribed something simple for me.  I think the thought of taking it kicked me out of the worst of my depression and with additional doses of vitamin D3 I seem to be doing better without having to succumb to drugs.  (I do not consider a shot of whiskey now and then, an extra big cup of hot coffee, or a glass of wine as drugs.) I have used all three this month, with a chocolate or two thrown in for good measure.

But enough of my whining, and on to the real stuff that made the month of January an Ok month.

This was the early morning view out the bedroom window before I started taking the lights down

Because winter is so very dark when the sun sets before 5PM, I am reluctant to take down the Christmas lights.  I wait as long as I can before I begin the process, taking my time.  I first work on interior house decor, then finally the village is packed away with Daughter Deborah's help, and finally I step outside and begin taking down lights.

All the indoor stuff stacked and ready for boxes

With so much fog keeping everything outside wet I needed to bring it all into the garage to let it dry out before packing it up.  I made a commitment that anything that I don't use every year will go to goodwill and the bins you see on the left side of the garage are where it all gets stored.

I started the project on January 5th and finished the house stuff on the 8th.  It then took me two days to take down the village the following weekend. Matthew took down the roof lights on the 13th.  So it was just a little over a week for the entire project, and I didn't work so hard that I wore myself out.  I think about this every year.  How many more years will I do this?  I have no idea but I am not ready to give up yet.

Our next-door neighbors told us how much they loved looking out their windows in the early morning and seeing the windmill all lit up.  Matthew didn't take down the windmill lights until the end of January.  It made the darkness a bit more bearable to have that bit of color down in the lower pasture.

According to my calendar, the dense fog inversion in Grants Pass began on January 6th and didn't leave us until January 20th.  It is almost certain that if we have a dry month without rain, the high pressure will cause the cold fog to fill the valley.  We know that just above the inversion layer there is bright sunshine, and sometimes people will travel up in elevation and post photos of the beautiful views above the gray.  If the inversion lifts, it is often because the high-pressure system is leaving and a low-pressure storm system is moving into the valley.  I laugh because then the foggy gray gives way to rainy gray.  But for me, rainy gray is better because at least it moves around a bit and the clouds have some life and energy in them.

Mo and I treated ourselves well during the month, with puzzles to entertain us, pedicures and a haircut for me, a bit of shopping, and a breakfast out at our favorite restaurant.

I was inspired by one of Janna's blogs about her artisan bread and decided to make my own, with more attention to the detail that was included in the email Janna sent to me of the pages in her New Artisan Bread Book.  The bread came out perfect.

Mo has more willingness to go outside in the damp weather than I do and she managed to do many maintenance jobs around the property in the afternoons.  I filled up a good amount of time finishing a quilt I made for our friends Phil and Joanne who will be traveling with us to Southern California this year.  Joanne saw the quilt made up last year when the four of us visited Joy of Quilting in Florence on the Oregon Coast and bought the full kit when I said I could make it for them.

On a Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed a truly spectacular performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony at the Grants Pass Performing Arts Center.  I have loved that symphony since I was a kid and enjoyed reading about the history surrounding it.  I thought that maybe everyone knew and loved the Fifth and that because it was my favorite maybe it meant I wasn't a very sophisticated music lover, but hearing that symphony live brought tears to my eyes and I once again understood why it is often the one mentioned most often by music lovers.

Another little bit of self-care for me was a bit of old-fashioned French cooking.  Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child was an old favorite that I somehow lost in our moves.  I mentioned this here and there and lo and behold I ended up with three copies of the book.  One for Christmas from Deborah, one from Maryruth, and one arriving from Amazon ordered by my sister in California.  Crazy.  

I decided to make a classic roast pork in a casserole.  In my mind, a casserole is that glass thing that you bake something in, but in Julia's version, it is a heavy-lidded pot that can go stovetop for rendering bacon fat for browning the roast and then covered and put in the oven for baking in moist heat.  Of course, I couldn't settle for just any pan for such a recipe and went to our local Kitchen Store where I was shown the amazing French cooking pots made by Emile Henry.  It was a ridiculously expensive pan, a super treat, and may have been what really brought me out of my funk.  The pork roast was the best I have ever made,

At last, toward month's end on January 20th, the sun broke through the fog and lit up the world around us with a breathtaking brilliance.  Mo worked on a water system she had developed for our long line of shrubs along the front of the property and I raked and cleaned out several flower beds.  

we waited every day for the afternoon sun to appear before going out to the yard to work in the beautiful light.  I was so grateful for sunshine and each evening we noticed a tiny bit of daylight added before our early sunsets. 

Mo is the one who hauls the cart to the trailer with the debris that I add to the cart.  I would wear down a lot faster if I had to do the raking AND the hauling. She also does a lot of raking when I wear down and can't keep up. Mo is a lot tougher than I am any more.

The chrysanthemums along the walkway don't seem to understand that it is now midwinter and they should no longer be blooming.   I cut them back anyway, because by spring they will be completely unmanageable.

The latter days of January were filled with fun times with friends and family.  The book club had a meeting on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Red Lily Winery, where we laughed and ate goodies and shared wine flights.  

Oh yes, we did actually talk about the book and chose another one for next month.  The book we read last was called "The Island of Missing Trees" by Elif Shafek.  The book was mostly good, but a couple of us had the same reaction.  It was well written and interesting until it got boring and then interesting again and then we would lose interest.  There was so much beauty in the writing, and the story was sad but good.  We all learned more about the complex historical relationship between Greece and Turkey.  I knew a bit of this from my friends Erin and Mui, originally from Turkey, but I didn't realize that the shifts in population between the two countries affected Cyprus as well.  The conflict between the Turkish people and the Greek people on Cypress was every bit as bad as the conflicts in Ireland, with a fenceline separating people who hated each other.  I would recommend the book even with its flaws.

The very next day was Daughter Deborah's birthday and we celebrated with a small family gathering with me and Mo and with Deb's son Matthew and his sweetie Katty.  Deb asked for patty melts and carrot cake and both were truly delicious.  We had a lovely time for most of the afternoon laughing and sharing stories.

Mattie loves having company and is very polite as she joins the family for meals.  She doesn't beg, but she does have a very intense gaze until the meal is over and she gets a bit of a treat.

Mattie spent much of the month on the couch or the loveseat or in my lap in the rocker with a blanket. She doesn't like the cold very much, loves lap time with the blankie, and loves lying on the rug in front of the fireplace.