Mid-Winter

My first entry of the year with already one month gone.  This February day is cold but not bitterly so.  I sit at a tiny table on the patio, writing in a composition notebook and basking in the intermittent rays of sun while strong northerly gusts sting my face.  Winter is considered bleak, but I have not seen the bleakness often described.   Instead, I find myself relishing the serenity of my surroundings.  The last months of the year pass by in such a blur, but January gives the soul a chance to simply be, lulled by a gentle repose of nature.   Nature sleeps and I gather a renewed strength from the quiet reflection and meditation of Winter's world.  And I paint on...