The morning breaks without the sun... again. After days of snowfalls and blizzards, today is wet and cloudy... The trees are making efforts to hold the heavy watery clumps of snow on their branches. I miss the light. I have been feeling moody, down and drained of energy. I hate when I don't own my body and my mind is wondering around... My self is small... I feel stuck at the moment... An itching urge for a long solo walk into nature makes me put my boots on and step into puddles of slush and uncovered mud on the driveways. Getting outside in the nearby woods has become the ultimate cleaner of my mind and worries. It offers solitude in which I am left with my own thoughts and my own inner landscape (more and more often my camera keeps me company).
This time is quite different as I am witnessing the intense melting of the big snow. It is warm and I am finding my feet digging into deep slushy earth. Patches of snow fell upon my head every once in a while leaving crystal clean drops on my jacket. Dripping of dissolving ice echoes against the unexpected gentle peacefulness. I hear birds chirping. As snow melts, it turns the normally shallow creek into a flowing river and the murmur of its water is slowly washing out my thoughts. My boots are stuck into the snow sludge. I stop and listen to nature sounds. Trees have voices... How easily I forget I am right in the middle of a megapolis... the noises are different now... Beads of sweat are gathering on my back. I take a deep breath... I am "washing myself of myself". A sense of liberation fills my being. With great effort, I am pulling my foot out from the mud... and making a step, then - the other foot... and another step... 
The snow is melting as is my sadness...
On the way back home I stop at the local market. I can't believe the medley of colors on the shelves I am seeing. Perhaps, being fully occupied by my melancholy and resistance to things as they are, I didn't notice it yesterday, nor the day before... A bunch of small golden beets like small orange suns, together with long baby carrots like tiny sun's rays are smiling at me and promising comfort and joy on the table.
They carry the missing light... and the sense of change...     






Cumin-Roasted Carrots and Golden Beets Salad

Ingredients:

 1 bunch of long baby carrots, greens still on, carefully washed
1 bunch of golden beets
1-2 avocados, pitted and sliced into wedges
2 cups watercress, rinsed and dried
1 teaspoon cumin
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
juice of half a lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup nuts of any sort or sunflower seeds


Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread carrots on a roasting sheet and toast with olive oil, cumin, salt, and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, or until tender and browned.

Wash and brush the beets under cold water. Put them in a pot, cover with water, add a splash of wine vinegar and cook for 15-20 minutes. Drain, cool and cut in circles. 

In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice and minced garlic. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper. 

Arrange carrots on a serving plate with slices of beets and avocado. Add the watercress. Drizzle salad with vinaigrette and sprinkle with nuts.





 Hope you have a gentle and peaceful month of March! 



Seasonal Sundays/ Stone Gable/ French Country Cottage/ Setting for Four