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What a January!


The stream below the abbey

I like wild weather, and around here we’ve had our share of it this January. Yesterday we were under four watches — a flash flood watch, a severe wind watch, a severe thunderstorm watch, and then just after nightfall a tornado watch. When the front hit, it was brief but intense, with rain lashing the windows and the wind roaring. The storm left another 1.6 inches of rain, bringing the total rainfall for January to 10.15 inches. That is real rain, and most of it fell slowly enough to load the aquifer, which needed it badly. I’m just hoping that 2013 remains a good rain year, as 2012 was.

This morning colder air is blowing in. It was a beautiful morning for a winter walk. The storm left no damage other than a dustpan blown into the yard. The streams are gushing. And there is a mysterious hint of spring in the air, even though the low forecast for tomorrow is 18F.

Happiness is some woods, water rushing over rocks, healthy chickens, a rich garden, a snug little house, and not having to go anywhere: the way most Americans lived before we all took jobs and left the farm for, um, a better life. It’s fun to walk this place and pretend that it all never happened, that we never took that wrong turn. But we did. And it would be convenient to ignore the fact that forces much richer and more powerful than we are (see my previous post on the North Carolina General Assembly) are doing everything possible to continue to drag us under as fast as they can and to make it impossible to turn back.


Fiona, who works harder than I do, starts her busy day.


The daffodils are up much too early. I hope they don’t regret it.


Shiitake mushrooms like their weather cold and wet.


The abbey: sun to the front, garden and orchard to the right, woods to the left, and more woods in the back.

2 Comments

  1. chenda wrote:

    It’s funny but since yesterday there’s been a definite spring feel here too, lots of people noticed it. I’m not sure what it is, I think we still have a sixth sense for seasonal changes.

    Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 2:14 pm | Permalink
  2. Uptown Jimmy wrote:

    Folks didn’t leave farms for the city for no good reason. Those farms lacked most of the cozy conveniences of your abbey…

    Friday, February 1, 2013 at 7:28 am | Permalink

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