A hazy shade of winter

Autumn was just here.

There was no gentle easing into the colder darker days in Chicago this year. Right after Thanksgiving, we were hit with a full-on snowstorm. It’s currently about 20 degrees, and there are at least eight inches of snow on the ground.

It’s very Currier and Ives out there.

I had envisioned a few more autumnal projects—preserving some leaves, foraging some sticks for my new wind chime projects, a few more pumpkin bars.

Never mind.

We have skipped directly to candlelight and evergreen time.

A few yellow leaves still cling to the river birches in our courtyard. They didn’t expect this, either.

It was a weird fall. We moved into our new place (fantastic), officially became Rogers Parkers (a good fit), and …now we carry whistles in our pockets. We have witnessed a community coming together under attack, and that’s inspiring, but mostly it’s awful and surreal.

So I’m finding myself turning inward even more than usual at this season. I crave quiet, and stillness, and rest.

Here’s what I’m doing lately:

Reading

So far, since moving into our new home, I have somehow managed not to allow my phone into my bed at night. I had developed a truly debilitating doomscrolling habit, that I tried to kick multiple times before, and I’m hopeful that this time it’s sticking.

Instead, I’m reading honest-to-goodness books. Favorites so far include: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk; and The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. Books-I-Enjoyed-But-Did-Not-Love include: An Elegy for a Hedgehog and The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Making

Terracotta shapes on wool yarn

In clay news, I spent the fall working on a wind chime project that may have fallen under a slight curse. It was a parade of burnt up nichrome wire (whyyyyy?), melted glaze, and forgetting that things shrink. Still, I’ve finally assembled the first prototype and it’s looking pretty good!

I’m in the beginning stages of working on a mixed-media sculpture, with clay and fiber elements. I’m taking a soda firing ceramics class in January, and I’m getting excited, if also intimidated.

I picked my Gardengate sweater back up. I finished the body a couple of years ago, and managed to avoid sleeve island until now, aka, I extracted all the dopamine from doing the colorwork and then got bored. A moth nibbled it. I wondered vaguely if it even fit anymore. Last week, I got back to it, and it’s going faster than expected.

Nourishing

I’ve inherited a NinjaFoodi (basically an Instant Pot) from a friend, and I am obsessed. I did not expect to like it, since I am obnoxiously analogue, but…oh my gosh. Chickpeas without soaking! Roasts in an hour! Why haven’t I been pressure-cooking everything this whole time?

Other new food kicks include: rosehip jam and a slow tour of every offering from the nearby Mexican bakeries.

Thinking

As we creep towards the Winter Solstice, I’m trying to find the good parts of the darkness. It’s a very dark time, but I don’t think avoiding love, joy, or creativity makes it any better. I try to remind myself that rest is necessary for action, but it’s also necessary for just being a human. How are you finding rest lately?