These winter January days have been mild, and garden cleanup has been on my agenda. It’s been freeing to work in just a fleece and pants — no thick layers, long warm coat, or hat required. Up on this coastal mountainside, we can often look out over a thick bank of fog to see the pointy tops of trees and distant mountains just above the white soup. This week we’ve been in the soup pot. Sometimes the white is a marine layer; this week it’s more like we are living in mountain clouds.  Visibility is limited, sounds are muffled, and a peace permeates the whiteness.

One of my projects has been to clean up and prepare raised beds for spring planting. One very long bed was recently expanded by Hubby when he removed the fence that formerly divided the dog yard from a slope. I’ve been digging and moving some dormant catmint, wild strawberries, clematis, dianthus, lupines, and other perennials. Every afternoon the chickens love foraging through the dirt I’ve upturned as they discover bits of treasure. They fertilize as they range, so I consider it a fair trade.

When rays of sunlight break through and blue patches appear above, the whiteness is so bright that my camera fails to capture the radiance!

Turning north, I learn the sun has melted my cloud and now the white lies below Coppertop again.