I don’t know about you, but I’m thoroughly enjoying this winter. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve had a proper cold, blustery, snowy winter out my way.

I keep my house quite cool, with the thermostat set to 60 most days. I want to say it’s because I’m oh-so-frugal and want to conserve fuel oil. No, it’s because I’m a knitter who likes to wear a constant rotation of all my hand-knit wool sweaters, socks, and shawls.

And because of the hot flashes.  

In the depths of January, I’m getting excited about the coming gardening season. It’s been years since I’ve been this excited about planning my garden. I’m looking forward to setting up my new raised beds and not having to fight with the terrible soil for once. I’m cautiously optimistic about this season.

I also have a lovely, cool basement with lots of shelves just waiting to be filled with jars of canned goods from the garden.

So, while the snow flies, I’m busy sketching layouts, flipping through seed catalogs, and making lists of vegetables, herbs and flowers I want to grow this year. I started getting my seed-starting setup ready this week, too.