Surviving February

I just took this picture today...but you may mistake it for a Fall picture because of the trees on the left.  I don't know what kind of tree this is, but once it sheds its leaves in the Fall, the branches and twigs remain yellow...

If there is any month of the year that I am prone to depression, it is February.  If I am going to quit a job, cut my hair or move, it is going to be in February.  By this time of year, winter has gone on just a little too long, and my thoughts become as dreary as the weather.  My sister says that it is because I don't get enough sunlight...but I think it is just because I am tired of brown.

Those of you in warmer climates may not get this, because your grass stays green all through the winter.  But in Wyoming, once we get that first frost, all the grass turns brown until next spring.  I don't mind it so much when it is covered with snow, but by February the snow is scarce and the trees are bare and brown, the grass is brown, the mountains are brown...even the streets in town are brown because of all the dirt that they sanded the streets with.  Brown...brown...brown.  How depressing!

I talked to my mother-in-law last week, and she is going through the same winter madness.  She said that my sister-in-law redecorated a corner of Aunt Myrtle's house, and though it was a small thing, she said it really gave Myrt a lift.  She decided to ask my sister-in-law to work a little magic on a room in her house too...

A lift!  A lift to get through February...what a great idea!  So I sat down and came up with a few plans for a lift of my own.  My February survival kit included rearranging the furniture of our bedroom, and a trip to the local nursery.  Of course it is too early to buy outdoor plants...but I can walk the rows of newly planted potted plants, smell the soil and the moisture, and drench myself in GREEN!  I can buy seeds for my garden while I am there, before all the french pumpkin seeds sell out.

I can goto Walmart and buy a forced bulb plant, either tulips or better yet, a fragrant hyacinth and put it on my kitchen table.  I can call a friend and go out to lunch.  I can spend an afternoon at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and browse until my heart's content because there will be no tourists.  And I can listen to my sister and GET MORE SUNLIGHT!

So today I rearranged my bedroom.  I moved the bed up against the  East facing wall, and now I can lie on my bed and see Carter Mountain, all covered with snow. 

And you know what?  It really DID give me a lift!  I may survive February after all!  DLB