Some weeks feel interminably long and this was one of them. I can’t even say why, but James and my coworkers and students in the library were also lamenting the very long week.

Maybe it’s because the weather is stuck in between seasons. I know many people don’t have the long, cold winters we do in Minnesota, but this year, real winter lasted about one week. After last year’s 96 inches/243 cm of snow, this year we’ve had only 7 inches/17cm! Generally we get around 52 inches/132 cm. And there has been no rain either. So it’s extra ironic that I didn’t fall once on my bike in last year’s snow and ice, but this year when there has been hardly any, I found some in December and fell and broke my clavicle.

Currently the season feels stuck in between—not really winter but not really spring either. We shattered the record for the warmest January 31st by 9 degrees! The record was 46F/8C and we reached 55F/13C. This coming week, if the forecast is correct, our nighttime temperatures will hover just below freezing but be a little above freezing by mid-week. This is usually the coldest part of winter and here we are, barely freezing overnight. As Kenny Blumenfeld, one of our local meteorologists, wrote in his newsletter last week,

You are witnessing a historic, almost astronomical climate event. Of the 63 complete days back to December 1st, 53 have been warmer than normal in the Twin Cities. But it hasn’t been typical warmth. It’s been extraordinary, and it’s been persistent. We have had 27 daily minimum temperatures since December 1 remain above the normal high temperature for the day. This period is currently out in front as the warmest on record in the region in the past 200 years.

Winter is broken.

The trees and shrubs are confused. Melody Maple has a few flowers. The elderberry has buds. The groundhog Friday said early spring, but this is much, much too early, especially when it is not uncommon to get snow through the end of April. I’m terrified the trees and shrubs will all come out of dormancy and then we will get a cold snap that will kill or damage them. This, I think, is a kind of weather purgatory.

The chickens, however, are living their best chicken lives with no deep snow, no frigid cold, and partially frozen soil, they are scratching up the garden to their heart’s content. I do love seeing them out there; they are incredibly focused when they are scratching. I doubt they are finding insects, even with the warmth, but the seeds are likely plentiful between weeds and all the feral arugula.

In spite of their intense focus, Lucy, our black Australorp, has made us hesitant to stand at the sliding glass door to check up on them. She either has a third eye, or a sixth sense, because no matter where she is in the garden, if James or I appear in the window she runs all-out to the deck because maybe there is a treat forthcoming and she wants to be first to it before Sia, Elinor, and Mrs. Dashwood are clued in and come and nudge her out. Ah the trials of being fourth in the pecking order!

Most of the time there is no treat and her mad dash was for naught. Then we feel bad and slink away from the window while she loiters, looking in and hoping. Eventually she will wander back out to the garden. Sometimes we have kitchen scraps to toss out to assuage our guilt, which is one reason she keeps running to the deck if she sees us. But how could we not give her something if we have it? She’s worse than a begging dog who can at least be distracted with a toy.

To celebrate Groundhog’s Day and the season of Imbolc, I planted onion seeds in indoor pots—walla-walla, a sweet white onion, and red wethersfield, a storage onion. Last year was the first time I tried growing onions and I started the seeds much too late. Hopefully I did not start them too early this year! It felt good to plant seeds though. There is so much hope that gets planted along with them.

Also to celebrate the season, I opened the jar of dandelion jelly I saved from last May just for this occasion. The jelly is sort of brownish-yellow, and has a quiet honey-like flavor that is easily overwhelmed by other breakfast flavors. But flowers on my toast in February makes me happy—it’s sunshine in my mouth and bees and yellow flowers in my heart.

It is the season of cleaning up and letting go; getting rid of the physical, mental, and emotional clutter. To this end, we have a little fire ceremony. We each write down on a piece of paper something we want to get rid of, crumple up the paper, and then set it on fire. Last year I burned up my “shoulds.” This year I set alight “expectations.” By that I mean expecting something to be a certain way or have a particular outcome. Expectations bring stress and worry and also shut down possibility and spontaneity. So up in flames they went. I’m hoping to find a calm resiliency and flexibility, to let go of always having to plan things out. It felt good to watch that scrap of paper burn.

Reading

• Book: Spectral Evidence: The Witch Book written by Elizabeth Willis and Nancy Bowen. The text is a poem by Elizabeth Willis called “The Witch.” Each line gets a page. And Nancy Bowen provides the art. At the end of the book is a fantastic interview with the pair in which we learn that Nancy Bowen is a descendent of Samuel Sewall, one of the Salem witch judges. Elizabeth Willis is related to Martha Carrier who was executed as a witch, and Mary Bradbury who was accused but not executed. After the interview is a list of all those who were executed as witches as well as all those who were accused. The entire poem is composed mostly of things witches allegedly do. The art that goes with each line is sometimes a direct interpretation and sometimes metaphorical. It’s a great book!
• Article: A Unifying Framework by Riane Eisler. You may recognize Eisler as the author of the feminist classic The Chalice and the Blade. She has more books than that, most recently from 2019, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future. But she has been very active these last couple of years writing articles and popping up on podcasts. In the article she talks about the “regressive agenda” and how we, in all of our various siloed social movements, need to find a way to unite in our struggles to bring about real change for the better.
• Article: Silence is Dangerous in the Current Age of Rising Fascism in the US. A sobering article discussing how, “In recent months, several scholars have sounded the alarm that the United States is ‘sleepwalking towards authoritarianism.’ The concern is not unfounded given that in his run for the presidency in 2024, Trump has boldly telegraphed his aspirations to impose an authoritarian future on the United States. He has repeatedly injected authoritarian language, extremist ideas and threats of violence into the mainstream.” It outlines all the things and emphasizes how we cannot stay silent in the face of it.

Listening

• Podcast: Scene on Radio: Echoes of a Coup. I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but y’all need to listen to its six episodes (the finale is next week). It’s all about a white supremacist coup that happened in Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898. But of course it didn’t start on that day nor did it end on that day, but continues to echo all too loudly in the present.

Watching

• Movie: Past Lives (2023). What a beautiful movie about friendship and love, things that were, things that might have been, and things that might be.

Quote

When all the witches in your town have
been set on fire, their smoke will
fill your mouth. It will teach you
new words. It will tell you what
you’ve done.

Elizabeth Willis, final lines of Spectral Evidence

James’s Kitchen Wizardry

James got a bit of break this week when we got takeout from Reverie, one of our favorite plant based cafes. However he did make a loaf of breakfast bread to have as toast with oatmeal. It has pepitas, walnuts, dried dates, and a few chocolate chips in it.