I love winter, at least relatively mild Texas winter. The bareness of the trees pleases me because it shows them stripped to essence, especially against the moonlit night sky. Last night the Sabbath moon rose yellow and fat, and later cast dramatic silver moon shadows of tree essence across the back yard. This week Jews celebrated the Sabbath of the trees and it made sense to me, pleased me, to think that the trees were resting at their sabbath, regathering energy in roots and trunks though not putting out leaves and flowers during this season. I've been especially aware of and moved by the trees all week, hope to write them a poem, though I haven't yet. What I have been doing is knitting like crazy, which is more fun than anything I've done in a long time. I'm just loving the colors and textures of yarn and also seeing my skills improve. It feels good to learn a new skill that produces useful objects, and it feels especially tender to be able to offer knitted objects to people having difficult times.