Brrrrrrr. Happy Monday, friends! It is JANUARY out there, with a vengeance. Are you staying warm? I’ve been keeping a good balance of coziness with outdoor time – because it’s not fun to wrap up and be cozy unless you get a little cold first. On Saturday, we all really needed a nature release. Last week was… fine, you guys. It was fine. The kids were off school all week long with five snow days in a row, but THIS IS FINE. They haven’t been at school since December 17, between their holiday break and then this snow, but IT’S FINE. So – yes, we really needed a nature release. On Saturday morning we drove over to my favorite local paddleboarding spot, Beaverdam Reservoir, to hike part of the perimeter trail around the lake. (When we were halfway to the lake, Steve jokingly said, “Oh no! You forgot your paddleboard!”) It was a little too cold to be out on the water, but gorgeous. The day was one of those clear winter days that feel almost brittle – in a good way. The reeds and rushes around the lake were crusted with ice crystals and the trail was sparkling. Really – gorgeous! After our hike Steve and Peanut stayed inside to warm up, but Nugget and I headed right back out to meet up with his buddy P, and P’s brothers, at a park in our tiny village center. The boys bypassed the playground entirely and headed straight for a hill (leading down to the sports fields) – rolling, penguin belly-sliding, and sledding followed. Nugget had been begging for a play date with this particular little guy for weeks so I was glad it finally happened, now that the holidays are over. He needed to roll and wrestle with someone other than Peanut.

That was the end of our winter wonderland. On Sunday we woke up to iron grey skies – I made it out for a three mile neighborhood walk, but that was it (although I did have an exciting critter sighting on my walk – read on). Not long after I got home, the skies opened up and the rain washed away most of our snow (and thankfully, most of the ice, too – the driveway was a skating rink). The rest of the day was devoted to the business of life – weekly swim lessons (Nugget was promoted to the next class up! Swim star!) and errands. I was torn between a desire to cuddle on the couch with my book all day, and the need to clean the house – and neither happened, but at least the errands got done.

Reading. Not quite as frenetic as the previous week, but I did a good amount of reading last week. On Monday I finished up A Time to Keep Silence (which was beautiful) and then tore through Twelfth Night in honor of Twelfth Night. Most of the week was devoted to A Countryman’s Winter Notebook, which I’d been saving – and it was worth the wait. Such a total delight. Slightly Foxed has hinted that they’re hoping to publish a series of four collections of Adrian Bell’s “Countryman’s Notebook” columns, with this being the first. I do hope the rest of the series happens! Fingers crossed. I spent the weekend over a library book – Square Haunting, a roundup of the lives and work of five female writers and intellectuals who all randomly lived in the same Bloomsbury square (albeit at different times, for the most part) – two novelists that I know well (Virginia Woolf and Dorothy L. Sayers), one of whom I’d heard but never read (the modernist poet H.D.), and two names that were new to me (classicist Jane Harrison and economic historian Eileen Power). I’m nearly done – and it’s been a fascinating read – with no idea what I’ll read next. Something off my own shelves, no doubt.

Watching. Well, we answered the fraught question “What to watch after Mary Berry’s Country House Secrets?” with something possibly even better – BBC’s Winterwatch. We’re watching the 2021 series and all pretty much obsessed. Have been alternating Winterwatch with Gardener’s World so we’re basically English now.

Listening. Speaking of being basically English, I’ve been binge-listening The Stubborn Light of Things, Suffolk nature writer Melissa Harrison’s podcast (she also has a collection of her London Times columns out under the same name) in which she muses on the flora and fauna surrounding her rural cottage while out walking. I’m quite behind – it’s a one-time series, recorded in 2020 and long completed – and the season is all off; it covers spring through autumn and I’ve been walking and listening with snow on the ground. But as I said last week, it has a very New Years-y feel, and Melissa’s thoughtful comments on the state of the world, change, and stillness, recorded in the first uncertain days of the pandemic, are still very applicable (and very comforting) during this dark omicron winter. I’ve been loving this listen.

Making. Meh, not much. I haven’t picked up my knitting in more than a week (I’m almost done with an infinity scarf for myself after whipping up several to give as Christmas gifts, but I’m taking a break – I guess) and other than some very uninspired dinners and one cookie-baking afternoon with Peanut – trying to break up time during the interminable week of snow days – I haven’t been spending much time in the kitchen. I suppose you can say I’m easing into the year; I’ll be back at it before long but for now I’m favoring a gentle post-holiday re-entry.

Moving. I’ve been on my feet rather a lot. Daily runs around my neighborhood (with some walks to fill in the gaps on rest days), hikes, and chasing a rowdy pack of little boys through the local playground. As I say every week – yoga next week, I mean it, I need yoga.

Blogging. The first of my traditional three-part reading retrospective of the past year, coming on Wednesday, and back to Seattle on Friday. Check in with me then!

Loving. I’m a broken record, but on my walk yesterday I was reminded again why I love living out in the exurbs. (And why it’s always a mistake to leave my camera at home – blurry picture alert.) As I rounded my least favorite corner in the neighborhood (we call it “Dead Man’s Corner” for the combination of poor visibility, an easily-ignored stop sign, and cars that like to fly around the corner taking a racing line on the side of the road where the law requires pedestrians to walk – ugh) a quick movement caught the corner of my eye. I glanced over and saw a majestic hawk. Hawks are actually quite a common sight out here – I see them almost every day, either on walks or while driving – but this one flew just a few feet up into a small tree in someone’s front yard, and I realized that he was joining a female hawk, almost certainly his mate! (We have a few breeding pairs in our neighborhood.) I stopped to gape for a few minutes; they noticed me and took off in opposite directions, and the male flew right across the road in front of me looking for shelter in a neighboring yard. Just in the past week I’ve seen multiple hawks, a bald eagle soaring overhead, and a stunning orange fox. I love living in a place where these wild neighbors are so visible – seeing them never ceases to amaze.

Asking. What are you reading this week?