Noted: February (Over a Cuppa)

Hi, Hey, Hello!

Thank you for joining me! I’m so happy to share a spot of time with you! How the heck are you?!

What can I get started for you? I’m brewing up some black tea with milk and honey (obviously) but also have coffee or any herbal tea your heart could desire! 

It’s unseasonably warm today and the wind hasn’t kicked up yet, so let’s have a seat on the front porch, shall we?

Where did February even go?!

I guess February was just living up to its name but goodness, this month truly flew by! Here we are, sitting on March’s doorstep and I am struggling to communicate where the hours, days, and weeks went!

How was February for you? Fast and furious? Or did it pass at a normal pace?

Resting

Despite starting off the month with grand plans and gobs of inspiration, I hit a roadblock mid-way through with a mystery illness that simply zapped the energy right out of me. It wasn’t the flu or COVID or even a cold, just a mystery infection that antibiotics are finally taking care of.

So instead of marching ahead with gumption, I limped through the last two weeks simply triaging life, sleeping tons, and trying to be gentle with myself.

I’d hoped I could spend some time on my lacey crochet project but messed up my count on a row and did not have the brain power to figure out what I’d done wrong until just a few days ago. Alas, my very short WIP has been extended, but I’m back in the swing of things now.

Reading

While I wasn’t able to read as much as I wanted to this month, I did make it through five books, all of which were enjoyable, if not perfect.

I wrote a bit about the first four books in my Turning Pages post but have since finished The Every (definitely worth listening to the audio if you’re going to dive in) and The London House (loved this story so very much) and did a buddy read of Alchemised with a dear friend.

All I will say about Alchemised is that I am so glad I read it with a buddy because otherwise it would have fallen into the DNF pile.

Why? The world building was s l o w and the first ~20% was very quite confusing with no backstory. Once the backstory kicks in, it starts to come together and is a truly engrossing story with so many layers and emotions. Both my buddy and I agreed that we are very glad we finished it but that we each only pushed through the slow beginning because we felt responsible to each other.

Also of note, there is every possible trigger in Alchemised. I am not easily triggered but I had some very big feelings about several of the troublesome topics addressed in this book.

What are you reading these days? Any buddy reads or DNFs? Have you read any of my February books?

Observing

Wildlife

We celebrated my wife’s Birthday at the beginning of the month by gifting her a couple of Trail Cams to put on the property. We’ve been talking about it for years and just never have so our daughter and I decided to just go for it. My wife was psyched and we have had a blast looking through footage over the last few weeks!

So far we have seen a coyote, a fox, a mouse, some neighbor dogs, and a gorgeous herd of deer on the cameras and we’ve enjoyed looking at tracks and scat on our walks down to the river to collect the cams and footage once a week.

Do you have trail cams? Might you be interested in seeing future footage from the high desert of north-central New Mexico?

Farm Life

As I mentioned above, most of February has offered an unseasonably warm follow up to an almost non-existent Winter. With nearly three months left of historically possible deep freezes, nature is quite confused and is already beginning to show signs of Spring.

The rhubarb is poking its heads through the leaves, the apricot trees are blossoming, there are dandelions popping up, and my elderberry is pushing forth its leaves…

The spinach and kale in the mini-hoop houses are happy to have some fresh air and unfiltered sunshine…

The animals all have Spring Fever and are laying tons of eggs, setting clutches, calling out in heat cycles, and soaking up all the sunshine.

And while I’m not quite ready for a big Spring Clean up yet, we’re putting in a greenhouse (by we, I mean my wife and landlord with my subtle support) and our acequia clean up day has been moved up to March 14th, so the frentes (the portions of the communal irrigation ditch that are on private property) need to be tackled/dug out/cleaned up before then.

Whether we like it not, Spring is right around the bend and no one of knows what the seasons ahead are going to hold for us or this sweet land we call home.

Are you noticing the change of seasons around you? Has the weather been wobbly where you are?

That’s All Folx

Thank you for spending a spot of time with me here, catching up over a cuppa.

As always, thanks to Natalie for continuing to host us for the #weekendcoffeeshare. She’s asking us to link up in the comments now after some struggles with the linky platform, so please pop around and see what others are up to!

Wishing you a lovely slide through the first days of March. I’ll be focusing on continuing to rest and catching up on all I’ve missed on your blogs 🙂

Onward,

Melissa