O, wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. ~William Blake
I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.
~ Andrew Wyeth
“Go to the winter woods: listen there, look, watch, and ‘the dead month’ will give you a subtler secret than any you have yet found in the forest.” (William Sharp, Scottish writer, 1855-1905)
Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year. For gardening begins in January with the dream. ~Josephine Nuese
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.
~ Edith Sitwell
The snow and ice of winter clothes the dilapidated barn with a mantle of clean white and sparkling ice.
by ArtfulWalls
Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour. ~John Boswell
“January is the quietest month in the garden.
But just because it looks quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants. The feasting earthworms tunnel along, aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come.”
~Rosalie Muller Wright
“Bells of Gray Crystal”
BELLS of gray crystal
Break on each bough–
The swans’ breath will mist all
The cold airs now.
Like tall pagodas
Two people go,
Trail their long codas
Of talk through the snow.
Lonely are these
And lonely and I . . . .
The clouds, gray Chinese geese
Sleek through the sky.
~Edith Sitwell
“All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost: the old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” — J.R.R Tolkien
“Anyone who thinks gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with a dream.” — Josephine Nuese
“Winter Garden,
the moon thinned to a thread,
insects singing.”
– Matsuo Basho
What a severe yet master artist old Winter is…. No longer the canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel. ~John Burroughs, “The Snow-Walkers,” 1866
“‘Hear! hear!’ screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, ‘winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.”
– Henry David Thoreau
“Advice is like the snow. The softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.”
– Paul Theroux
Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
~Bill Morgan, Jr.
Lava quod est sordidum,
Riga quod est aridum,
Sana quod est saucium.
Flecte quod est rigidum,
Fove quod est frigidum,
Rege quod est devium.
[Wash what is dirty, water what is dry,
heal what is wounded. Bend what is stiff,
warm what is cold, guide what goes off the road.]
Brew me a cup for a winter’s night.
For the wind howls loud and the furies fight;
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I’ll toast our bright eyes,
my sweetheart fair.
~Minna Thomas Antrim
SHE TELLS HER LOVE WHILE SLEEPING
~Robert Graves
She tells her love while half asleep,
In the dark hours,
With half-words whispered low:
As Earth stirs in her winter sleep
And puts out grass and flowers
Despite snow,
Despite the falling snow.
He withers all in silence, and in his hand
Unclothes the earth and freezes up frail life.
~William Blake (1757-1827), “To Winter”
One kind word can warm three winter months. ~Japanese proverb
Garden Hoarfrost
Garden Hoarfrost Postcard
by ilonagarden
Winter Trees
by William Carlos Williams
All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.
Bare winter trees in stark contrast to snow in landscape.
by ilonagarden
A WINTER HEARTS HOPE
On this snowy winter evening
On this beautifully pristine night
Wrapped in the memories of your embrace
I feel a part of everything around me
And a longing to be held by you
To see snowflakes drift into your hair
The winter moon’s glow caress your cheek
And find myself dreaming of seasons to come
A winter heart filling with such great hope
For the newness of love amid spring’s bright flowers
The glow of the warm summer sun on our skin
Long walks and laughter in the crisp autumn air.
On this snowy winter evening
I know you won’t be with me
And find myself wanting to know you are safe
Comforted and secure, if not in my arms, and
Happy and warm in your memories of me.
We touched and my heart was so filled that
When, as now, we can not touch
I find that my heart isn’t empty or sad
And somewhere deep inside I know
My heart has never been so full
So warmed by memories of fiery desire
And thoughts of all we’ve yet to explore.
On this snowy winter evening
I feel my heart racing to yours
Across the space and distance between us
To join our souls, which have always known
But just recently, formally, met each other.
And as I return to the warmth of my home
I feel blessed by memories – crystal clear –
Of lingering kisses, long embraces
And the warmth of the fire we come to share.
I am filled with a wonder that I’ve never known
That causes my spirit to soar and dance
And brings hope once more to this winter heart.
~author unknown
