February Intentions

February has traditionally been one of the hardest months for my mental health. It's cold and the days are short. We're coming out of several, long months of winter so my solar energy reserves have long since been depleted. And, I usually dread the entire month and want to skip ahead to March.

However, I'm trying to think more positively and build healthier habits, and I think it might actually be working. I'm as shocked as you are. I'm feeling optimistic about plans I've made. I'm creatively inspired and have a long list of project ideas I want to work on and share with you. I'm finding pockets of dry weather to get outside in the garden and put my hands into the dirt. I'm getting back into a regular exercise routine. For the first time in a long time, I feel like if I hibernated through February I would be missing out on these beautiful days that will help set me up for the coming spring.

So, I've decided to focus my February intentions around this feeling of preparing for spring and looking forward to future growth.

1. Gardening

My first intention is the most literal interpretation of preparing for spring. I want to focus on the garden, preparing the space for the coming spring months. This is simply a continuation of what I was doing in January because I've been enjoying it so much. I'll keep reading the gardening books I've already started and probably check out some new ones from the library.

I want to continue planting trees as they arrive. I ordered apple and willow trees earlier in the year and three of my apple trees have arrived and been planted already, but I'm still waiting for the rest. I have everything I need for them and just need to get them in the ground once they arrive. It's a lot more work than I anticipated to plant these baby trees. Between choosing spots, cutting the grass, laying the weed suppressant, digging the holes, setting the stakes, planting the trees, carrying the compost and mulch, and all the other little tasks, we ended up spending an entire day out in the field for just the first three trees! Now that we've done it once, it may go a little bit easier next time. But, even if it's just as difficult, it will feel amazing to look out and see the start of our orchard and basket making set-up start to grow.

I also want to order garden boxes, build them once they arrive, set them up in the space that I've picked out for them in the field, and fill them with dirt. I want to choose which fruits and vegetables I will grow in the boxes and order the seeds. At the moment, I'm planning for cucumbers, kohlrabi, peppers, spinach, and pumpkins. I expect this list will change and be added to several times before any ordering is done.

In addition to everything else we're planting, I want to make a plan for growing some dye plants this summer. I have a few seeds that I ordered last year and never got around to planting, lots of space, and unearned confidence. It would be a dream to dye wool with plants I've grown myself. I need to do some research, choose plots of land, and maybe even order more seeds.

I want to use some scrap wood that we have in our barn to build a compost bin that will sit out in the field, near the garden boxes. I'm new at woodworking, but we have a saw and a drill, and some of the plans I've seen online feel very achievable.

Pallet Compost Bin

Pallet Compost Bin: Going green and creating your own compost bin isn’t as hard as you might think. All those grass clippings, plant prunings, and other yard stuff is easily recycled into compost. The project is simple. You need pallets, wire (to bind them together), …

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And, as I mentioned in my January review post, I've signed up to start taking a course on beekeeping this month. It takes place online, one night a week for two months. There are a few weekend days where the class will meet in person and get to try out some of the practical skills too. I'm going to be reading a couple of my personal books about beekeeping to supplement my learning. If the class goes well and I enjoy working with the bees, I hope to buy my first hives in the summer.

2. Reconnect with my community; friends, hobbies, and hometown.

-Friends

I generally draw into myself in the winter, wanting to stay close to home and be a complete introvert. But, I still used to go out occasionally over the cold months when an extrovert friend would make plans, have regular Zoom calls with friends who live far away, and some friends would call in for cozy evenings in our Dublin cottage. In the spring, I would emerge from my hibernation, becoming a much better, more engaged friend who plans weekends away and dinners out on the town. My friends know this rhythm and are understanding and kind about it.

This year though, since we live so much further away and can easily go days without leaving the house, my antisocial tendencies have gotten slightly out of hand. I haven't been good at keeping in touch with most people. Day trips feel like a lot of work; staying home simply feels easier. It's been months since I made the journey to Dublin. I've only done one or two Zoom hang outs in the last couple of months. I haven't been picking up the phone to check-in. I miss seeing my friends. I simply haven't been putting in enough effort to nourish these really precious relationships. I can't continue these bad habits until Spring; I'm missing out on what's happening in everyone's lives now.

This month, I want to make an effort to schedule Zoom calls with people, write letters and send little presents, and pick up the phone to talk, schedule times when we can get together for the weekend. Even if I can't always stop by for lunch now that we live further away, I can still make time to connect with friends. It takes a bit of effort, but it's completely worth it.

-Hobbies

This month is already off to a good start with my efforts to see a lot of people we love. We had an SCA event in Clara on February 1st to celebrate Imbolc and several of my favourite people were there. We spent the day chatting, making Brigid's crosses and beeswax candles, and eating delicious foods. Even though I woke up that morning with a lot of anxiety about going, I ended up having a fantastic time; even the drive to and from the event was beautiful, and it was good to get out of the house for a while.

There are two SCA arts and sciences days this upcoming weekend, one in Galway and one in Dublin. We are trying to decide now which one we will attend. Since moving to the west of Ireland, we have found ourselves in the strange position of living in one SCA territory, while knowing more people in the one we just moved from. One the one hand, it would be lovely to go to Dublin and see the people we already know and love. But, on the other hand, it would be great to go to Galway and get better acquainted with some lovely folks we've only just started getting to know. I want to make space in my life for new connections, while still holding tight to the ones I already have.

Later in the month, there's another SCA event, this one themed around Valentine's Day. I've already agreed to teach a class about medieval undergarments at the event, partly so I can't talk myself out of going. It's been fun to start doing a little bit of research again. I'm incredibly grateful for the friend in the group who reached out and asked me to teach a class; I feel like she could sense that I needed something to pull me out of the house. I think I'll write up a blog post here after the event with some of the research I did for the class.

With this sudden influx of SCA events, I'm feeling inspired to sew more for my garb and the upcoming markets where I hope to sell my hand-sewn accessories. The summer is our busy season in the hobby, and it's easy for me to think that I'll repair my medieval wardrobe and get a jump start on sewing for the market over the quiet winter months. I rarely do this unfortunately, leaving it all until right before an event. But, now that I'm putting it down as a goal here, I'll make the effort to get my sewing kit back out and chat with friends in the group about what I'm working on. I also have a couple of sewing commissions that I need to finish this month, so that should help to keep me motivated to spend more time in my studio and focus on my sewing.

-Hometown

Over the summer months, Daniel and I got into the habit of walking into town somewhat regularly to eat breakfast or lunch, stop by the library, or see a movie or pop into the pub in the evening. It was really wonderful and we were starting to recognize people and make some connections. Once the nights got longer, we found ourselves doing that less and less. It's still rainy and dark and not ideal for walking into town, but we have a car now so we can drive when the weather is miserable. I want to spend more time in our town. This month, I'm going to look for a pub trivia group, knitting club, craft class, exercise class, or something similar that would help me to meet people in my new town with similar interests to my own. It would be great to have local friends to meet up with on a weeknight.

I also want to reach out to our neighbours and invite them over for tea. They're incredibly kind people who always check in on us and seem to be genuinely interested in how we are finding life in our new community. It would be lovely to get to know them better.

And, as always, I will focus this month on trying to not let the general state of the world right now bury me. We have to keep going and hoping for change if we want to get through.
My coping mechanisms will always be: stay off my phone as much as possible, read a book or four, eat nice food, move my body, make something with my hands, look for the rainbows, search for treasures in unexpected places, and hug an animal any chance you get.

Take care of yourselves this month.