Happy New Year!!!!!!!

It's a wet and windy New Year's Day in Vancouver. I guess we are officially into winter once the New Year arrives. I shouldn't be complaining about a little rain as I know it could be a lot worse.

Growing up in Northern Ontario, this month would often be the coldest of the year with lots of snow and temperatures below zero Fahrenheit for almost the whole month. We would still manage to spend many hours out-of-doors, often skating up to the outdoor rink on the snow covered roads to play hockey or skate or sometimes play broom ball until 9 p.m when the lights on the rink were turned off.

We could keep warm in the 'shack' which was usually a one room wood structure beside the rink with wood benches around the inside perimeter and a pot-bellied wood stove the size and shape of a 45-gallon drum in the middle of the room. These rooms could become stiflingly hot. It was not unusual to have the chimney glowing red. It was amazing that these structures did not burn down more often than they did.

I used to love to use one of my Aunt Baba's expressions at this time of year: "It's cold enough to freeze the nuts off a steel bridge!". It was just bad enough to get attention and not bad enough to be reprimanded. I would say it as often as I could, especially to nuns and teachers.

This is my garden at the end of December 2009 - hopefully looking its worst of the whole year. Amazingly, after several hard frosts, some spinach plants are still standing. I will need to wait for a thaw now before I can dig the soil to get rid of the weeds before the growing season returns. It's time again for seed catalogues!