Calendars

The calendar says January, but you'd never know it by the weather. As I begin writing this at 11:30 p.m., it is 48° and still raining. It's been so warm, I haven't worn anything heavier than a light jacket when I go out. The ditch across the road is full of water, and our neighbors have a small river running through their back yard. Blue Creek has been out of its banks most of the week and we are currently under another flood warning.

Calendars are popular gifts at Christmas time, and I got two of them this year. Our youngest daughter, Jenna, got me a daily photo calendar that has a picture of a cat for each day. We have seven cats at the moment (only two inside), but that number is always in a state of flux, depending on who happens to decide they don't want theirs anymore and they 'miraculously' find their way to our house. While we wish some people were more responsible and caring pet owners, we have welcomed the strays into our home. We do love our kitties. (More about those later.)

Kara got me a photo calendar of a different kind. In November, she asked me to make a CD with about twenty of my favorite pictures that I had taken of my flowers. I couldn't narrow it down to that many, so she got a disc of 200. Most days, when I go out to do a walk-through in the gardens, I have my Felco pruners in one hand and my digital camera in the other.

Kara's pretty creative, so I figured she was going to surprise me with something. When I opened the stocking stuffer from her, it was a calendar that she'd had made at VistaPrint. There were twelve of the pictures that she'd chosen - one for each month of the year. She'd also had everyone's birthdays and anniversaries printed on the calendar. January's page has a photograph that I took last winter, of the hens and chicks with snow on them. That's how it's supposed to look in January.

I have another calendar on my desk that I received as an impromptu gift from my harp teacher a few years ago. She had this wooden perpetual calendar and every time I would go for a lesson, it was never on the right date. I would always fix it for her and one day, she handed it to me. She said I was the only one who paid that much attention to that calendar, so she wanted me to have it. She was probably tired of me reminding her that she wasn't keeping up. In any case, I love this calendar, and it reminds me of her. I still have my harp, even though I don't play anymore. I know that I will take it up again, so it waits patiently there in my living room for that day.