Thinking about January makes my head spin.  Could it be the month to retreat to the fireside and the intellectual rigors of a timely novel–or perhaps to organize drawers and closets and shovel out the basement?  Trips to the Goodwill and dump inspire virtue and self-satisfaction–isn’t that how I want to feel in the first days of the new year.  Boring!!!  What makes winter palatable for me is the promise of renewal in the garden. I want to linger over the catalogs that the mail person stows the mailbox, attack the pile of garden books proliferating by the bed and in the office and wander the garden in search of the almost imperceptible clues that signal rebirth.

The universe has other projects for me  this year that  preclude spending as much time on my usual winter pleasures. January is ushering in a new era in the garden.  Cleaning up the debris from the aftermath of the cherry tree and rose debacle has consumed much of our leisure time–do people really enjoy leisure time? The rose canes  are part of a mountain of material composting at the yard recycling dump and stacks of wood are on their way to a relative in Hood River who has a wood stove. Much raking to do to liberate emerging hellebores and other precious spring ephemerals from their uninvited mulch of small twiggy stuff.

Now the fun begins.  A base map of the area beckons me to begin rethinking and redesigning the garden.  Tissue paper overlays each with a different idea litter the drafting table.  The vision becomes clearer and more refined with each pencil stroke.  Envisioning  a small gravel terrace in the midst of the border, bracketed with low hedging, new pathways and a Victorian/Gothic/Craftsman structure with a pitched roof.  Fred, the builder boy, is gathering ideas for his Vico-craft building project.  (Vico-craft denoting that one of our buildings is Victorian in style and the other is Craftsman).  Can’t wait to finish the design and start building. Stay tuned.