While I was sick the first two weeks of January (and Allan fell sick with the same feverish ague one day after me), I was happy that by day three I was able to move from my bed to my chair. The cats were happy, too, and awaiting my arrival in the chair each day for the next several days.
Only the first day of fluishness was a sunny one; the rest of the days were blissfully cold and rainy so I had no unhappiness about missing out on winter gardening time.
One of my happiest staycation memories is of the several days I spent simply reading, guilt free because of a sore knee, in January of 2012. When I look back on these days of January ’14, I won’t remember the sore throat or fever but just the pleasure of reading all the day long. I caught up on the latest books by Elizabeth George and Lee Smith and read one excellent gardening book:
The Layered Garden by David L. Cul
It addressed many questions about garden design…
His analysis of beauty is up there with the very best garden writing:
The book had much enlightenment to offer me about snowdrops (Galanthus). I have always known that there are lots of different cultivars. The catalog from which I order offers only two, so I had not seen the differences (and had never gotten around to looking them up online).
Galanthus pages in The Layered Garden
Look at the ones in the upper right with that delectable touch of yellow!
Mary takes an interest.
from The Layered Garden: I feel the urge to collect Galanthus coming on…
Mr Culp is possessed of a dry wit…
The end of the week of reading culminated in an exciting wind storm with gusts of 93 mph at the beach nearby. I then felt well enough to begin to putter in the garden in the week of nicer weather that followed. (More on this later.) In the evenings, I’ve been reading the archives of one of my favourite blogs, The Miserable Gardener. I get through a month or two couple of evenings. And what did I find there…but more fascinating discourse about snowdrops!
Tangly Cottage Gardening 