Winter's Food

When it comes to my beloved outside world I have noticed winter's slowness, coldness and lack of colors makes me easily sad. True we all need a break, a rest to regain the energy for spring but most importantly we need to keep in mind when cleaning up the landscape in the fall all those tall ornamental grasses and vegetation should stay put. Nothing should be cut or trimmed back until spring since the freezing cold of winter could kill your plants by pruning or cutting in the fall. What I love from harvest time is seeing berries and bushes fully stocked for the soon to arrive snow! ALL of Nature needs this food supply to survive the cold season. How amazing it is right now to watch my chickens find food that I left in my garden JUST for them this winter. Those huge pumpkins and squashes that decorated my home over Halloween now lay in my rock garden feeding all the birds and squirrels, my frozen water bowls are replaced with new liquid  in hopes to keep all souls out there alive a bit longer through this winter. Gardening is a life style, creatures come to me with no fear of being hurt because I want for them to have the very best quality of life......Surely everyone would want this too? Remember in the winter to stock those bird feeders, to refresh the over night waters and leave blankets on lawn chairs for cats to keep warm! It's not hard to see the living move among bare trees and empty bushes, to hear the needs of winter's protection for all of the world. One of the most beautiful things to watch is how snow will be resting over a fully seeded grass with those little birds jumping in and out of it for food! THAT is all Mother Nature's perfect care and design so imagine a magical world where we all honor HER style and class, a chicken finds a dust bath, a cat finds a tuna can and the sunlight warms your smiling face while your dogs play chase! Winter's food brings such things together, the hope is that love and laughter will hurry on to spring again in the end.......