It is only the sixth day of this new month, but Valentine’s Day is only a week away.  Do you remember the lacy-decorated box on the teacher’s desk, made to hold valentine cards?  Do you remember those packets of little valentines, about 20 of them /box, we exchanged with each other?  Valentine’s Day still can be a fun time that brightens our winter and gives us another chance to spread a little love around.  One of my favorite poems for this occasion is by Robert Louis Stevenson:*  “I will make you brooches and toys for your delight, of birdsong at morning and starshine at night.  I will make a palace fit for you and me of green days in forests and blue days at sea.”  Gift options (unless you are a poet) for today’s valentines are less imaginative, but still delightful.  Retail stores go all out to sell heart-shaped boxes of candy, beautiful bouquets of flowers, sparkling jewelry and silky lingerie. And there are little bags of tiny heart candies in the grocery store.  Made-by-you gifts are also wonderful; a box of fudge, special cookies, a heart-shaped pillow, or a promissory note to clean the refrigerator or wash the car.  When I have the time/energy, I still like to make my own valentines; I enjoy working with construction paper, doilies, ribbons and glue; probably a bit of that inner child they talk about in therapy.  Whether you buy your valentines or create your own, send an Email or make a phone call ---- those people who receive one, people you care about, feel especially loved.

Valentine’s Day exists because of a clergyman’s (possibly a Bishop) kind heart and his martyrdom. The Reverend Valentine continued to marry young couples in violation of the Roman emperor’s decree (who wanted those single, young men for soldiers), and he was thrown into jail.  While imprisoned, he sent notes to his family and friends signed, “Your Valentine.”  He was executed on February 14th for his disobedience ( it didn’t take much to be executed back then), but, as St. Valentine, he lives on in the hearts of all romantics.  So, carry on his tradition and do something special to brighten your day and those you care about. Happy Valentine’s Day!

This time of winter is when we all start sighing, and begin looking for signs of spring,  imaginary or not. Suddenly we can hardly wait for a tomato and lettuce sandwich straight from the garden. I go over my garden plans again, and check the plant catalogs.  Last fall, while the summer’s dreadful gardening experiences, due to illness and weather, were vivid in our memories, I was determined to cut back, making less work for us.  But then the catalogs came in December, with those enticing pictures of peonies and roses, delphiniums and lilies ---one can almost smell them.  I can, with some difficulty, cut back on growing vegetables, but leaving out flowers is a painful. I can, all too well, envision blue delphiniums against the gray fence posts and another climbing rose on the pergola.  The periwinkle blue of scabiosa (dreadful name) would be lovely against the stone foundation of the house and creamy nasturtiums spilling over railings would be charming. Maybe more big pots will help.

I come by my garden addiction honestly.  I have written before about my mother’s gardens. But my sister, Betty, had quite impressive gardens too, and one sister-in-law was really good as well; she had a carpet of bluebells beneath a tree that was beautiful in the spring.   And my brother Frank’s gladiolus, were always large, brilliant, and satiny.  Several of my nieces are carrying on this gardening tradition in California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and possibly South Carolina; I haven’t been there, yet to see, but she has a lovely garden in NYS.

If the garden catalogs aren’t tempting enough, we have at least three garden stores within a half-hour’s drive. And even more compelling, several studies have indicated that working in the soil is beneficial to one’s health.  There is something about contact with the earth, and being outside, that calms the mind and lifts the spirits. So, my concrete plans last Fall for closing down some of the gardens, may crumble with the onset of spring. However, revising plans and creating flower combinations, is something that gets me through the weeks of February cold and snow.  Imagination is a wonderful thing!

The flower for February is the snowdrop. The month is named in honor of Februa, the Roman goddess of cleansing, and prior to the Roman influence, to Brigid, the Celtic goddess of healing, poetry, and craftsmanship.  February 2nd is well-known in America, as Ground Hog Day, one of our sillier, but fun, customs to get us through the winter.  This is when we allow someone to awaken a very comfortable woodchuck to consult him about the arrival of spring.  If the woodchuck’s expression on morning TV is any indication, he would just like to bite someone and go back to his nap.  February 2nd is also Candlemas Day.  This is a Christian holiday to commemorate the day Mary took Jesus to the temple, as a baby, to be dedicated. This is when both church and personal candles are blessed for the coming year. February brings the Full Snow Moon and/or the Full Hunger Moon. I expect that the latter name was very realistic for those people who lived close to the land.  Supplies were getting low and hunger was the norm for this time of the year.

Many years ago, when I was in elementary school, we celebrated Washington’s birthday, and Lincoln’s birthday on separate days. Some decades ago, they were combined into Presidents’ Day. I don’t really know what kids do now to mark the occasions, although they do have the day off from school. Do third graders still draw pictures of cherry trees and hatchets?  Do they still read the story of why Abraham Lincoln took the advice of a little girl regarding his beard? And is the Gettysburg Address still required reading?

Memorizing the names of presidents and the order in which they served, may still be done, but wouldn’t it be more valuable to talk about them, as real people?  Discussions of their accomplishments, and their mistakes would teach kids to think and evaluate. George Washington apparently had thoughts about our thinking when he said: “In a free and republican (not political party; a form of government) government you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude. Every man will speak as he thinks, or, more probably, without thinking, and consequently will judge of effects without attending to their causes.”  Washington had a dim view of the thinking coming from the general populace and I do not think that has changed much. Too many people are stuck in a rut of non-thinking, only accepting a news channel that tells then what they wish to hear, fearful that their children will think differently, afraid of new ideas, unused to thinking about the procession of an idea’s beginning through to the consequences.  People need to question, research, and process all components of ideas that will affect many others.

Moving from philosophy to the view outside my window, we are still turkey-less.  They left in October (turkey season began) and must remain in whatever haven they’ve found elsewhere.  It saves considerably on bird seed, but I miss them.  They pushed each other around like a crowd of adolescent boys, fanned their tails as spring approaches, and provided an interesting scenario beneath the bird feeders.  There are plenty of bird varieties that do come; juncos, Carolina wrens, cardinals, blue jays, several kinds of finches, nuthatches, tufted titmice, woodpeckers, and the cheery chickadees.  A hawk came swooping through one day, right after I’d put out seed.  There were many birds on the ground and on the feeders. I don’t think the hawk caught one; those little birds surely did scatter; in a whirlwind of beaks and feathers.  They were definitely traumatized, for they didn’t come back for two or three hours.

As we proceed into February, the days grow lighter and we know we are closer to spring.  However, there is plenty of winter left unless we have a most unusual season.  People who live in more urban areas, where there are many lights and much activity, wonder what on earth we country-dwellers do with ourselves in the cold and snow. Trust me,  we are seldom bored! There is an exercise program for upper arms and shoulders in scraping ice from car windows and shoveling sidewalks or paths.  And there is the equally-useful exercise acquired when splitting wood for kindling and carrying logs. 😊  I don’t think I’d enjoy living where there wasn’t a change of seasons. I like variety in my life. And there is a delicious feeling of being cozily snowbound when one is inside and the snow is coming in flakes, showers or squalls, outside.

Winter gives us time to enjoy the scenery through the window, since we can’t be doing all that much outside.  Inside, there’s time to write real letters to friends.  We can pick up a paintbrush and try those water colors we got for Christmas three years ago.  We can, whittle, knit, embroider, hook rugs or braid them ---- all old crafts that shouldn’t be lost. But most of all, in February, we can send a valentine or two, to let people know they are cherished and important to us.  And we can move slowly through each fleeting day, appreciating every precious moment to the fullest.

Carol writes from her home in Spencer. She may be reached at: carol42wilde@htva.net.

*Robert Louis Stevenson--- Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer.  1850-1894.