(Oh, please let it be MID winter! We’ve already had a winter’s worth of snow in just one go . . . )

“One kind word can warm three winter months.”  Japanese proverb

“The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches.” E. E. Cummings

“If there were no tribulations, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer.” St. John Chrysostom

 

“January is the quietest month in the garden.  …  But just because it looks quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.  The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants.  The feasting earthworms tunnel along, aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come.”  Rosalie Muller Wright, Editor of Sunset Magazine, 1/99

 

“Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle … a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream.”  Barbara Winkler

 

Clichés for the Cold:

Dead of winter.
Cold hands warm heart.
As pure as snow.
Now is the winter of our discontent.
Left out in the cold.