Winter Rest for the Weed Warrior

February 21, 2011

6 to 10, 12 to 15, 18 to 21.  The inches expected keep getting bigger and bigger and so does my smile.  Snow is dumping down from the sky , an easterly wind (at least I think it’s easterly, it’s blowing so much out there, who can tell?) is blowing huge flakes fiercely around, drifting in unusual places.  I don my under armor, extra socks, Carhartt, Sorels, hat, and mittens and head out.  I am a Snow Warrior.  I love winter.  I love snow.  I love the cold, the extremes.  How can a gardener love winter everyone wonders?  “Do you ski?” I am often asked.  The explanation I have is usually that I hate the opposite.  I hate, hate, hate HOT.  And the second reason is that the dormancy of winter (especially with the length of it here in Minnesota zone 4) makes me appreciate the growing months all the more.  It makes me be efficient in what can be accomplished in one season.  Winter allows the rest period that is so needed.  Winter rest is an actual term (from the German term Winterruhe) and is defined as a state of reduced activity of plants and warm-blooded animals during winter.   The law of growth is rest.  We all need to take a break, to nurture our own bodies, to heal our souls, to re-center.  Winter does that for me.

I head out to the driveway with the snow blower, but the pile the city snow plow made at the end is too big for the snow blower to tackle it on its own.  I have to chop it down into bite size pieces the snow blower can gobble up.  After working at this pile for some time, my sides and back can feel a slight ache.  I’m sweating.  I’m smiling.  I’m waving to my neighbors and asking if they need help.  I love this.

Today, though, my smile is two-fold.  The digging I’m doing with my shovel is the same motion as digging in the dirt.  I think about how spring really isn’t that far away, this snow is just a temporary blanket, and I’ll be digging in the real dirt soon.  I feel the ache in my sides and back and can’t wait to feel that after an afternoon of working in the garden.  There is such a satisfaction in the aches after a good days work.  Even though it’s cold out, I can still feel the sun on my face and am reminded that I will soon feel that warm spring sun.  (I can’t look too far here and think of the hot summer sun or all of my happy thoughts will disappear!)  And lastly I’m thinking about comradery.  My neighbors and I collaborate with our snow removal.  We share snow blowers and shovels and gas and stories about what’s going on inside our homes.  The same thing happens in the summer, only then we swap plants and mowers and tips on getting the rabbits out of our gardens.  Shoveling for me, just like gardening, is a social event.

For now I am a Snow Warrior and loving every minute of it.  In another 2 months (or less!), I will become a Weed Warrior again.  I better hunker down and continue my dormancy in preparation.