Welcome, March!

March 1st—freezing rain and snow for four consecutive days! And then, today, as if to celebrating the beginning of the first weekend of March, the sun came out melting snows and bringing out all the birds. How happy the earth felt, and my heart too! Everything looked so vibrant and flawless and the brilliance brought in by this new March sun made every thing feel and look gloriously springy!

I went to the moody mud-covered garden and my feet sunk under soft wet grasses and mud, and I noticed that the first tulips have already started showing up happy little heads. Some of them, in the right places, some in the wrong. And I had to just ponder and asked myself how could I had been so reckless or distracted as to not noticed when I was planting, that I was planting in the wrong place? Now, these tulips will have to be pulled out, because they were planted in that special place I’ve been saving for my new roses.  Argh!

Reuben and Antonio came by today to work on the new fence and gate.  That’s the space where our new trailer is going to be kept.  

How excited I was to have this project finally started!

We are adding a new fence and gate at the front and, to add more space for the trailer, we are also moving that part of the fence which separates this space from the garden a few feet down.  Which means the garden will be smaller now, and I will also be losing the little pond I created last spring... sad!

But what a disappointment this project turned out to be when it was all done, because the fence that now will be dividing the trailer side of the backyard from the garden is everything but straight.  Period.  From whatever angle you see it, it isn’t straight.

Back to Winterland

Is it normal to feel this depressed after a glorious vacation of warm Caribbean sun and marvelous beaches? I supposed it is, if you’d have to come back to Winterland again. 

Winter’s chill isn’t for everyone I supposed. So, back to my fleece pajamas and warm sheepskin slippers it is for me! 

I hear that on Wednesday while we were sunbathing in some of the most beautiful beaches in Nassau, here in our high desert snow was coming down in big flakes… and so much it snowed, that some of our schools had to be closed down for the day. Freezing rain and a lanky dark sky welcomed us back home. Dispositions are low and eyes are having a hard time getting used to this no-light no blue skies situation again; weakening down the spirits and wearing down old bodies. 

But of course, this could very well be just how I see things, because this sun loving creature that I am needs lots and lots of sunshine and a glorious tableau of many greens where to repose these eyes all year around.

Our winters here are yellowish-brown and bleak because of the type of trees we have. But when it snows the scenery changes and the land gets to wear its peaceful white garments and gleaming jewels of crystals, and it is beautiful and alluring everywhere you look. The little creatures, dwellers of the garden love this time of year too.

They don't seen to mind cold, cloudy days at all...

or think that our winters are too long, or too cold to take a bath...

And there is quite a different sort of conversation on a bare fence than there is in the shadow of a beech tree in summertime…

They don't complain either, like I do, about February being too long too cold too annoying.  They just do what they have to do, knowing that winter is like a brief pause in music, and that during that pause the musicians are privately tuning their strings, to prepare for the coming outburst.  I know, I have to learn from them!

We are high desert through and through, with the benefits of having nice mountains and forests close by, and a river running through town.  We are not desert like Vegas or Phoenix, but more like Reno and northern Nevada. And I can hardly wait to start seeing all those glorious tulip heads popping up everywhere in the garden. I'm so ready for warmer days and new buds on the lilac trees!  I am dreaming with roses... lots of roses, new roses, old roses and I'm thinking of planting Moonflowers and Morning Glory at the feet of climbing roses.  Would they take over the roses?  Would it be a bad idea?

We haven't brought our new trailer home yet, but soon, very soon it will be here and I will start decorating it in my favorite gypsy style.

The Fisherman will complain about everything I want to do there, all the things I want to hung from the ceilings and on walls and all the gypsy fabrics and tapestries I want to wrap our bedroom with, the cushions and floor pillows and bohemian gypsy décor.  All—he will complain about everything, and I will not have a care in the world whatsoever, and at the end he will agree with me and love the end results and feel pleased and delighted seeing me happy and cheerful like a little bird.  Men.  Don't we have love them! ;)

Winter

Rain rain… for three consecutive days, we have been gifted with precious rain.  This is the time when our high desert gets the highest amounts of rainwater, then, during our hot summer days, Nature can go without it for months.  So, I am thankful for whatever amount of moisture we can get these days. 

Which also means, I’m spending most of my days cozying up in my jungle house! 

Watering my ‘plant children’ and making sure they get plenty of humidity from whatever source they can get it.

A few weeks ago, I decided to rescue my potted Norfolk Pine—the same one I had discarded after the Christmas holidays were over and took it outside to let die, because I knew it couldn’t be planted outside and survive our winters, not to mention that it’s not even close to being a native plant…

It happened that the other day when we were at a local gourmet café we like to visit, I noticed a potted Norfolk Pine sitting by the large windows, and it was huge, and beautiful, and looking at its size, I figured the plant must had been several years old.  Which meant they could survive in a pot! So, I run back home and save it. Was it worth it? I can't tell yet, but I like to see it in in this corner of my house…

My new white flowering Kalanchoe is doing great thus far. The Kalanchoe flowers can last for weeks and weeks. I got my first Kalanchoe last summer, and its beautiful pink flowers bloomed throughout the entire summer and fall. And now this white one is doing the same… these flowers last and last…

After my pink flowering Kalanchoe was done flowering, I repotted it, so we’ll see what happens now.  The small flowers look like tiny roses... I love them!

In my gypsy room days are spent decorating, and going through dozens of home and garden books and magazines.

Adding fairy lights everywhere!

I covered the closet door with that same versatile tablecloth I use for everything.  A few weeks ago, it was a bedcover, now is doing the function of some wallpaper.

I love it so much!

Some of the geraniums have started blooming. This have to be one of my greatest joys during our long winters for sure!

And here is that closet door again!

The other day, a huge flock of robins came by again, so many birds, that not a single tree in the garden was devoid of them.  Me too, I’m also looking forward to spring!  Dreaming with it, dreaming with flowers and vines and a strong sunshine to crown my head and warm my shoulders…

I can’t forget, though, that winter has its own beauty to share, and I’m learning to love the natural stillness and effortlessness that come with it, the beauty of snow in the early morning, the melancholy of nights.  Winter is the time for home.  And I’m gathering each of its precious jewels in my soul.  Learning to love what it has to offer me on a day to day.  And how beautiful, and glorious it was this morning as I was coming home from a date with my Fisherman at Starbucks, to see the new day dawning behind snow-covered peaks; winter light, merciful and opaque, reposing over frozen fields. Coming down a steep hill I could see the entire valley below as far as my eyes could reach covered in a nimble haze; smoke from fireplaces slowly and ceremoniously rising up the heavens as horses and sheep received the new day under the great openness of fields covered in winter delight.

OK my friends, I hope I haven’t bored you!  I hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day today, and may you always find peace and joy during your days and nights. 

I will be absent from this place for a few days, but if you miss me you can always find me on Instagram!  https://www.instagram.com/gypsycielo/

See you then!

The snows of life

Tuesday, Feb. 5—how marvelous and astonishing to have been welcomed by the brilliance and freshness of new snow this morning... and what a surprise, too, to discover it had snowed as I pulled up the blinds to let light into our room.

Snow that had silently fallen during the hours of night to remind us that each moment of the year has its own beauty, and winter is not the least.

And how blessed and thankful I felt for another good night rest.  And how uplifting and wonderful it is to witness God’s mercy in a personal level when you place yourself in His hands in total surrender.  You see, sometimes, I find it hard to fall asleep, my anxious heart won't let me rest and I have to go my Heavenly Father in total dependence for rest and peace. My faith is then renewed, my body healed and my mind put at rest.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord,

“My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

When I was a little girl, I was awfully frightened by ghastly darkness and the sounds of night. The fear of sleeping alone, or sleeping at all, was so intense that I remember my heart racing crazily, my body trembled and sweated profusely. Most nights I felt ill, and I could not sleep at all. Miraculously, one day when I was around nine, I discovered I had an all-powerful Almighty Savior and my life was deeply transformed. 

Even so, we still live in a sinful world, and sometimes the anxiety and phobias of childhood, when not treated, can prolong till adulthood, and there are times when, still today, things are not so great.  This is the beauty of how life is designed for us. 

One thing is clear to me: the wound is where the light enters. And light did enter into my wounds, and into my life, and it filled my soul with peace and confidence. And perhaps this wound, this pain, was allowed so that I could have a deepened awareness of life?

One day I realized that my sufferings were not a punishment. They were a tool to deepen my perception of life and the receptiveness to the world that surrounded me.  It expanded my consciousness, and it made me more sensitive of the divine.  It made me more present, and more capable of feeling the joy and light and gift of present moments. My fears were the contrast through which I could finally understand and feel lightness. It is a privilege to feel discomfort, it is a gift to be gutted.