The annual January thaw always fools me – and maybe the wrens too – into thinking that spring must be right around the corner. After yesterday’s warm rain deluge, the snow is a memory, the ground gives and squishes like a soaked sponge and there is so much variety in the shades of green and brown that I’m getting distracted trying to give them all names. (viridian, turquoise, jade, moss, pea, blue lichen, salad mix; topaz, russet, ashes of roses, sepia, raw umber, muddy boot…) Anyway there’s a rainbow, so to speak, (get it – rainbow?) outside and it smells pretty good too.

Some gardeners take the cold weather opportunity to find hot (color) climes this time of year. But as envious of them as I generally feel (evidently, Costa Rica is the happiest place on Earth), I wouldn’t want to miss the thaw and the daily reminder to appreciate the changes even when they’re really, really subtle. (This is how I console myself – along with naming the greens and browns.) Plus there are all sorts of seminars and lectures over the winter and I wouldn’t want to miss any of those either – just last night Lee Reich gave a talk here on how to espalier fruit trees (and shrubs – currants!) and tomorrow we’re off to the RI Nursery and Landscape Association winter conference.

Can you smell the earth today? How do you console yourself for not being in Costa Rica? (Or is that where you are?)