Well, this week would have to fall somewhere in my top 20 of the worst weeks ever, and it doesn’t help that it has to end today with the most depressing day of the year. That would be the end of Daylight Savings Time. I consider that to be the first official day of winter. I HATE winter.
Thank God it warmed up today enough to get in some picnic-table sitting time. Wednesday through Friday of last week the Weather Demons were afoot and it was unseasonably cold, in fact, it was 29 degrees F. on Wednesday morning. Hello! This is supposed to be Florida!
There are other signs of impending winter; for instance, I noticed that the Kudzu is dying. There is a field of it I pass by on my way to the neighborhood liquor store (yes, it was the kind of day when an extra bottle of wine was called for). I hate to admit this, because Kudzu is a truly evil plant, but I kind of like this field. Looking at it is like being a kid and trying to pick out shapes in the clouds.
There is a great website called Floridata http://floridata.com/ which is a plant encyclopedia basically. I used to go to it almost daily, even in the winter, because I could plan and scheme for the spring when I would try out new plants. That was before I abandoned the yard to the fireants. But Floridata says that if you have kudzu, you should fertilize it with Agent Orange.
So on this first day that we go back to Standard time, I get very gloomy. Winter makes me feel like I live in a bunker. Picnic table-sitting after work is a thing of the past, unless you count the 30 minutes you’ll have before it gets dark when you get home from work. I can do it on weekends, assuming it’s warm enough, and honestly, it should be warm enough on many occasions through at least mid-December. I’ve asked my sister for a gift card to Home Depot for Christmas this year, to put towards an outdoor heater of some kind, maybe a Chimnea.
Just like every other year, I try to make myself look forward to something about winter, and just like every other year, I can’t think of anything. Well, I take that back…building that first fire in the fireplace. Maybe a trip to the beach. I like the beach in winter. A trip to Maclay Gardens in January to see the Camellias. But mostly, I just pray for February. Unlike the start of winter, the start of spring is not when Daylight Savings time begins again, it’s when you see that first bloom on an Oriental Magnolia.
Before I got too gloomy today though, a very cheery thing happened. I saw a bat! It’s been months since I’ve seen a bat, I suspect because of the infernal noise from the construction of Wal-Mart, which is now almost finished. I love bats, not least because they eat mosquitos. I’m so glad they’re back.
Sometimes the simple pleasures are the best. A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and a bat.
