The January Blues

January always seems like a hard month to get to the end of. The first week or two you're glad that its quiet, you need the time to relax after the excitement and busyness of the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years holidays. Then January drags on, it gets colder, snowier, and grayer. The coziness and warmth of the holidays seems like a distant memory and the new life of spring seems unbearably distant.

Yes, I have the January blues.

We're forecast this week to get significant snow, but I always say that I'll believe it when I see it because the forecast is often wrong. While a beautiful snow is exciting, clean, and brings a unique enjoyment and memories of snowdays as a child (as long as you don't have to drive in it), the ache for spring is here.

Some friends have been posting videos and photos of flowers to chase away these winter blues, and that seems like a good idea. I took this photo in the backyard after a rain in June 2008. It satisfies some of my craving for color and flowers.