Wordless Wednesday: Frost, Prairie Grass, Sunshine and Shadow

Winter

I loathe winter.  I loathe the cold.  I don't dislike it.  The cold seeps into my core and no matter how hard I try, I can't warm up.  And I can't shake the depression that overwhelms me, even with flax seeds, flax seed oil, fish and milk in my diet. 

I don't think it's Seasonal Affective Disorder anymore.  I think it's the lack of outdoor activity. 

There is a rhythm to the Earth.  A rhythm to walking on a dirt path, tree branches passing overhead, the grasses a tapestry of various hues hiding wildlife. 

The footsteps my heartbeat, the grasses the swishing of breathe, the hidden life a reminder that the world goes on.  There might be troubles with Iran and Syria and Wall Street and the Occupy Movement and SOPA.

But on the trail, they are gone.  They will be handled.  And I will have my strength when I return home to bear hearing my Babcia's voice telling me over and over how she wished in her life that we could spent more time together.

I reconnect with the earth and accept life as it is when I am outdoors.  I breathe in and out and feel everything is where it should be.

I can sense the life, people and animals and plants, that were on this soil before me.

I can sense the creation that has been before me, that is now, and that will create again when I am gone.  Call it Science, call it God, in the end, it is the same thing.  A wonderfully orchestrated amazing and unending Creator.  One that works with a rhythm.  Like feet on a trail in the woods.  A heartbeat.

In the cold winter, the frozen ponds and unceasing winds, there is no rhythm.  Not one I can hear.  There is only a rushed herding of children from house to car to building and a feeling of being breathless for a moment afterwards.

And then, that moment afterwards when the warmth returns to you, when you catch a breath that isn't so cold that it burns, when you feel your heartbeat again.

Santa Claus brought me a bearable winter this year.

It's January and just now the pond has finally frozen enough to bear my weight.  The geese are just now assembling and honking their way across the skies toward the warmth of the South.

My children's bare hands in my bare hands and we smile at each other and talk.  And our breathe doesn't hurt.

I can talk to them about the millions of shades of winter.  The browns, the blues, the muted greens and reds and yellows.  The animals sleeping.  Waiting for Spring.

We are walking.  The rhythm of the Earth beneath me.

Na razie...

Related Posts:

Winter on the Prairie (January 2011)

Winter Wonderland (February 2011)

Frozen Pond (December 2011)

Our Start to 2012

My husband participated in the Lake County Polar Bear Plunge at Waukegan Beach.  "Proceeds from the Waukegan Polar Bear Plunge go to the SRSNLC- Waukegan Scholarship program. This program helps individuals with disabilities participate in camps, athletics, health and fitness programs, and much more."

He walked in up to the lifeguard, went underwater, and walked back out.  Our toddler told him she was cold and we went home to change and go out to eat at a restaurant some friends suggested.  I won't waste any time talking about that restaurant as it was... disappointing.

We are all now taking naps and snuggling together in pajamas, planning the next charity event he will be participating in and our next outdoor adventure on the prairie.

I hope your 2012 started with as much fun and excitement as ours.  Happy New Year!

Na razie...



Disclaimer:  No compensation was received for this post



Related Posts:

Father's Day (one of several "mud run" marathons my husband participates in)

Lake Michigan

Wordless Wednesday: Frozen Pond

I promised yesterday I would post some photos that were possibly of December 13, 1981's "Martial Law" but after looking closer, I realized they must have been taken closer to the end of the USSR's Communist regime in Poland.

I can share them another day.

Instead, I will celebrate today's temperatures being in the 50's with photos of our small fish pond frozen over.

Every once in a while, we can briefly see the goldfish, catfish and snails in there but they for the most part are cowering in the plants and bravely trying to make it through the winter.

In the meantime, geese keep coming over and walking on the pond.  Shouldn't they have flown south for the winter?

Na razie...





Related Posts:

Winter on the Prairie

What a Winter Wonderland

Zupa Ogonowa or Oxtail Soup

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn at the Farm

Sisters and Best Friends...

I figured out where my Krasnoludki dissappear to everyday when they are supposed to be washing my dishes and folding my laundry...

I wish there was some way to share with you the mouth watering real pickle smell in this jar...  Note the lack of yellow food dye.

I recognize that I am holding a cheap point-and-shoot.  If any camera companies feel like contributing so that I can take better pictures of chickens, flowers and our trips to Poland, I would very gladly accept.

Na razie...

Marcal Small Steps Giveaway and Our Week So Far

Last week, we started the Marcal Small Steps Giveaway.  I used random.org to generate a random winner number. 

"True Random Number GeneratorMin:Max:Result:14"

#14 is Hyacynth of Undercover Mother.  Congratulations!

I am the classroom mom this year for my older daughter's classroom and their Halloween party is coming up so we have spent the last few days getting ready, shopping, cutting out countless circles, triangles, and squares for their Halloween themed crafts.

Did you know that Halloween is a holiday specific to the USA? It's not very popular in Poland but is slowly gaining momentum. After all, Poles love Autumn and the harvest as well. And children the world over enjoy dressing up and eating candy.
We also tagged along for their field trip to a local farm.  I will be sharing pictures tomorrow.

The coyotes, deer and flock birds have been out in full force this week.  We even watched a red tailed Hawk be harassed by a pair of crows this morning.   Thankfully, our friendly neighbor skunk has stopped using an area of our house against a wall for a toilet although it would be nice to catch a peek of him/her out of our window out of spraying reach while walking so that I could photograph him/her.

But every time we spot the wildlife, either in our yard or while on a walk or driving, I never seem to have my camera at close reach.  I hope to have some photos of them to share with you with week.

I also recorded Lake Michigan during a "Tropic Storm Force Warning" that covered our region a couple of days ago and will be sharing that this week.  Around this time every year, Lake Michigan changes from a tranquil clear clean blue (with fierce and silent undertow) to a tumultuous and dangerous gray unlike anything I had ever seen before in my life.  It's beautiful but fierce.

It has been a busy week for sure.  What have you been doing this week so far?  Are you getting ready for Halloween?

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn on the Prairie

Autumn, no matter where you are, involves certain things.  Pumpkins, falling leaves, apple harvest season, seasonal vegetables, animals preparing for winter...

Just north of me is Wisconsin.  Until I moved here, I didn't realize that Wisconsin and Illinois are the Pumpkin Capital of the USA.  This year was a tough year for growing pumpkins and I was unable to find the massive pumpkin fields this year stretching as far as the eye could see on the flat prairie covered with orange dots everywhere. 

Our older daughter's school gave out free pumpkins in the school parking lot. 

Did you know that pumpkins are not grown typically in Poland but that the trend is changing?  My Babcia until recently would grow pumpkins in her little garden in Wroclaw to make pumpkin butter with.  But she was always very progressive.  You can't help but love that woman.

Mr. Braveheart of Stiles Vegetable Farm and Greenhouse happily ate more corn from our hands this week.  We got glimpses of the baby ducks who had hatched a few short weeks ago.  They will be grown by the time winter hits.

Leaves keep sticking to our sweaters as the wind blows and as the children chase each other at school pickup every day attempting to toss leaves on one another.  Listening to their giggles, watching their smiles, that is why I get out of our car everyday for pickup instead of sitting in my car and not interact with other parents.

My latest haul from the local farm, Stiles.  Pictured are a Sunflower head to dry, carrots, an extra large zucchini (I baked a whole wheat zucchini chocolate chip bread with added flax seed and wheat germ for the class to enjoy for snack time), a head of cabbage, a butternut squash, a bag of apples, potatoes, a bunch of beets, radishes, a turnip and a rutabaga (they are two different vegetables).  All grown locally, 100% of the money I spent to buy them went to the local farmer and local economy.  There was less impact on the environment by trucking each item in from various places around the world.  The produce is fresher and, therefor, packed with more nutrients.  And I could see which fields each grew in.  That's why I buy local...

There are several types of squirrels here.  In Maryland, the black squirrel died off many years ago when there was a blight that devastated the local chestnut trees.  I learned this at Jerusalem Mill.  In Poland, the squirrels are red with cute little ear tufts or are the European ground squirrel which is coming back from the brink of extinction.

Here is a video of a Polish Red Squirrel just because squirrels are so darn cute...

I wold love to have this sign hanging in my house.  It is from a local apple orchard that sells apples and fresh unpasteurized apple cider in this small building on the side of the road.  You can literally walk in, meet the farmer's wife and see the man in the other room washing and pressing the apples.  100% of the money I spent on the apples and apple cider went to the farmer and, again, no trucking it in from various areas around the world.

What is going on in your area of the woods?





A side note:  Apple cider should be enjoyed right away.  Shake up the container, then pour.  Young children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems should not drink unpasteurized apple cider.  However, you can heat up the apple cider (with a stick of cinnamon in the pan, if you like for added flavor) before drinking as a great cold weather drink and to kill any pathogens you might be concerned about.

Wordless Wednesday: A Nature Preserve

We found this park to go for a walk in.  I had to take a photo and share of the entrance.  It reminded me of many places in Europe...

Na razie...

Our First Midwest Tornado, Almost

Yesterday, I had the children in their room dressed after a bath and we decided to go say good night to their Dziadek before he went home.  It was supposed to be an early bedtime with Mama feeling a bit grumpy for no good reason.

I glanced out the window and saw a dark cloud over the house but since the storms normally come from West to East, in other words, toward the Lake, so I figured a storm just missed us.  But the sky looked yellow.  And the trees were moving differently under the abuse of the Prairie Winds.

"There is storm coming from the Lake toward us, I just saw it.  It was starting there and looks Nasty."  My father proclaims while holding his youngest wnuczka (granddaughter in Polish) while his older wnuczka was singing for him in her nightgown.

I look back outside the window and all the sky is black.  This was much faster than normal.

The power went out and suddenly, a squirming toddler froze in her Dziadek's arms and a school aged child sat next to them without speaking. 

The power didn't return as we held our breathes.  "Alright, time for bed.  Dobra noc, Dziadek!  Ja cie kocham!  Buska!" I called out as the children repeated the words and kissed him goodnight.

We walked upstairs and a sudden gust of wind slams against the front of the house, blowing curtains through the seams of the windows.  My heart leaped in surprise.  The wind never blows against the front of our house.

The tornado siren went off.  I listened, knowing it was the tornado siren because they go off once a month here testing that they work properly.  But my mind was still in Maryland and thinking that it was a call to the volunteer fire department.  A second wail of the siren and I told the children, "Back downstairs, in the bathroom, it's the tornado sirens."

My oldest ran down the stairs and on the floor of the bathroom, kneeled, bent down with her face over her head, like she was taught in school.  The baby sat in my lap as I listened. 

I could hear my older daughter whispering "Dear God, please don't let there be a tornado."

The men went outside to see.  I comforted the kids and said, "Don't worry, if they run in yelling, do as you are told, but don't worry.  The siren goes off if there is a chance of a tornado but doesn't always mean one."

My father and husband came back in to comfort us that they had not seen a tornado but to be safe, we should sit on the sofa nearby the bathroom for now.  The tornado sirens had ended.

On the sofa, the toddler continued to stay quietly in my arms looking around and not wiggling as she normally does.  Eventually, the dark and the quiet made her fall asleep.  My older daughter hugged me and asked questions every so often.

The men came back in and said that the storm was just lightening and not to worry, the sirens were gone, go to bed.

I laid down the toddler and tucked in my older daughter in her room, who was so terrified still that she wanted me to sleep with her.   After a while, the power flickered back on, then flickered again and went out.  I saw outside a shower of sparks around a tree.  A power line was broken.  There would be no electricity for a while.

After a time, she fell asleep and I went outside to look at the lightening that was clustered around a point a bit away from us, the same spot over and over flashing with lightening for at least a half hour.

I went back inside but a few minutes later, an opossum walked by our open garage and by husband and father standing outside.  The opossum glanced into the garage and wandered off.  Darn, the kids could have had a pet.

Electricity was restored late this morning.  But it will take a lot longer for my older daughter to forget about that day.

I share this per the request of Dine and Write, also known as @thepolishviking on Twitter, who is an amazing cook and apparently secretly a fan of "storm chasers".  The post I was planning to share about curry rice and Chicken po Staropolska can wait for another day.

Wordless Wednesday: Beefalo

We came across a buffalo male and a beefalo female...



And one of their babies...