Preparing for winter—and Wynter

 

 

        Time to bring the plants in, says Ms. Janet Carson, the horticulturist. Where do I put them? I ask myself. By windows, I answer.

 

        Now, I have plenty of windows but not all of them will host a plant--be it small, tall, narrow, H-UG-E, like the schefflera that's 3-feet wide and 2-feet tall. OK, narrow it down to possibilities: the breakfast room/green room on the southwest corner. Three windows, two doors.

        First, take down the pear-motifed curtains to let in more light. Wash, dry and fold.

Second, wash the exposed windows. Done. Now, how to hide the upper window where sash meets frame? Think, girl, think. You are creative. Aha! Take the clean curtain panels one at a time. Fold them into 4ths. With white thread strung through a teeny-eyed needle, baste a place for the curtain rod. Hang, Voila!

 

         Another possibility for those of us who have our mother's and grandmother's crocheted lace from worn-out pillowcases or the embroidered part WITH the lace still attached. Do the same--perhaps on the door. Now, you have a reminder of the dear ones who've preceded you and helped make you what you are and who you are still becoming.

 

        Since this is an old house with thin-paned windows, time and weather have messed with the casings, etc. If air can get in anywhere around, lay lace into the flat loose places, then arrange clear or colored glass pieces on top. One winter, I used fake snow fabric. That way, I could imagine an inside, but never-melting, snow scene.

 

         But I digress. At the south windows, on a two-by-twelve, hand-built-by-Dad, bench we used to sit on at breakfast (yea, many years ago), I arranged pots of jade plant, a dish garden, a drunkard’s dream plant, then placed the huge schefflera at the end.

 

        At the west window, I stood a fern in a tall metal plant holder. Perfect. On the table are two African violets, one that needs dividing, and one that had been divided and is having a hard time recuperating.

 

         But that left two tall angel wing begonias, another fern, a mother-in-law’s tongue, a split-leafed philodendron, a large container of peace lilies, a corn plant and the infamous Norfolk Pine that finally recovered from serving as last year’s Christmas tree. Oh, yes, the money plant the church gave me when I retired.

 

         All are now positioned in front of windows—some in the living room, more in the office/sunroom, and the latter, in the west window of the guest room.

 

            But that was just the beginning of readying the house for winter. Now, Wynter was arriving soon. That visit required sweeping, dusting, cleaning off and redressing the dining table, cleaning (and decorating-for-autumn) the bathroom, mopping the kitchen floor, shaking the rugs and sweeping off the front porch.

          Just in time, too. “Hello, friend Wynter! How was your trip?”