I’m not much of a New Year person – for me, everyday is a start of a new year and the seasonals mark our time more efficiently. But there is always time for extra celebrations, so a little New Year’s as a thing isn’t the worst (it just isn’t a big thing…we go to bed at a reasonable time, though I keep reminding myself that hedonistically we used to try and never go to bed on New Year’s and now it feels deliciously excessive to go to bed early). January, however, marks the planning time.
Homestead plans for us, mostly. We unroll a swathe of kraft paper over the studio table and map out our orchard, our gardens, our sugarbush and see where we want to spend our energies in the coming months. We lament the wandering compost pile, the multiplying brush piles, the projekts from last year undone (my dreamy grass garden around the ‘big rock’, rebuilding the rock wall, the new kitchen and herb garden ‘room’) adding to this year’s possibility of tearing down and rebuilding the garage into a small barn and putting in some long term perennials into the ‘sundial garden’ and shaping the blackberry patch (with rows and lines). And assessing our successes and less successful endeavors such as garden clean up and winter preparations (I’m pretty sure there are still tomato cages out there).
We had an anniversary date (#26! Jade and Art, apparently) to our local favorite Slate’s, which we haven’t been in quite awhile. It was nice – really nice with a pre dinner glass of wine with friends at Table Bar and a nice drive around to see the lights. It was a welcome respite as we get our rhythms down both in the new store and at the homestead. Rhythms and revolutions.
So, here’s not to resolutions but revolutions! May your plans revolve around your desires and your values and your satisfactions.
Rock Bottom Homestead 