At the doorstep of 2021

The year is white from ends
with flourishing green in the middle
The year
The year is what we have chosen to be our reference point. The year starts and ends in winter in places where I have lived and still live. The end and the start of the year happen to be white very often or about 85% of the time, sometimes with snowdrifts and shiny snow blanket over grasses and frost on trees, sometimes – with only ice patches and mud, sometimes bitterly cold, but always in winter. I am aware it’s not everywhere like that.
The green part of year
I am a fan of the middle: from early spring till the last green grass stem is still growing. I stop painting winter right before Christmas, and in the recent years, I am trying to stick with my decision not to paint any snow. It is easily explained: I cannot wait for the first flowers and plants to come up. I will be digging soil in the backyard when it hasn’t even completely thawed yet. That is my gym and my exercise and always has been.
Sinful idleness versus meaningful doing
The age impacts the flow of time and our perception of time settings to a great extent. The older one gets, the more serious they are about using time wisely, at least I am. I do measure my days by accomplishments, not by hours. If I haven’t managed to get anything meaningful done during the day, I’ll be upset. Therefore, spending time just exercising or walking aimlessly while I can also get done something useful in the garden, is a sin for me. Just like idle sitting around or having small talk.
No small talk for me
I avoid small talk, I certainly do as much as possible. Walking is fantastic, and I add usually a target to it: one store or another, appointment or visit. If I’m in the middle of painting, I simply cannot answer the phone. That frequently involves making small talk. Paint dries quickly, ideas vanish and mood changes. We never paint with the brush and paints only, there are a lot of other factors which go into my art.
Nobody has all answers
It’s good to believe that we know all the answers as our age grows and gets past 60, but it’s not true. The more we know, the more questions arise. I am very thankful for my medical knowledge, pharmaceutical and diagnostic skills and clinical experience. That has really helped and not only me. It keeps making life easier. I’ve also discovered how Canadian doctors are not always up to standards and protocols, and how much their diagnosis can be affected by rush, generalized assumptions and plain misunderstanding or inattention.
Superficiality
Superficiality is very widespread. The justification is that nobody has time. That is the biggest paradox of nowadays: everybody has plenty of time for fruitless scrolling through the internet on any screen that happens to be around, but no time for the good and meaningful things which make life worthwhile. Most people don’t ever read anything that’s under the picture or within the actual text, or the first 3 words at the best. Superficiality leads to sloppiness, disorganized and careless attitude in other areas of life.
Lack of quality
Quality is very quickly disappearing as the result, and lack of quality actually applies to absolutely all areas of our life. For instance, while I know that restaurants are having tough times, the restaurant and takeout food is just not for me and my family. We have gotten takeout meals a few times, and most of this food went to the garbage bin. It had no taste, no flavor, and there was certainly no love applied when cooking. High class workmanship and good skills in whatever walk of life we are looking for, are just not there. It makes no sense trying to get somebody’s help when it’s pretty clear you will have to do it over.
The year 2020
Everybody of us applies our own ratings and our own measuring tape based on experience, age, knowledge and so forth to whatever we are evaluating. Comparatively, I cannot complain about this year. The previous one, the 2019 was much worse since I lost my mom that year. Garden was doing extremely well this year. I put in many jars of preserves for winter. I had no live art classes from March to December, therefore, I was able to paint many more of my own paintings. Some of them are really excellent. Washing hands, disinfecting all items and areas, wearing a mask and staying at home was not a problem for us because we are a tiny 2-person family. Financials could be way better, but, unless one is a billionaire, that’s always an area which could be better.









Be patient
The COVID-19 pandemic probably will take quite a while to resolve. As we have seen, this virus mutated very quickly, thus, causing to establish whether the available vaccines still work for the new variants of this virus. It’s uncertain that more new variants won’t appear before everybody has received their immunization dose of vaccine. Only time will show how long we are staying safe and how long the vaccine actually helps keeping one safe: a year, 3 years, more years? Time is what we didn’t have so far. Being patient is very important, hence, everybody contributes to putting the COVID-19 pandemic behind us.
Wishing safe, healthy and good New Year!
Thanks for reading if you did!
Happy white, green, and all the colors in-between! 💚🤍
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Thank you very much!
I am already waiting for spring, no doubt about that, and meanwhile taking good care of my room plants of which I have very many.
I wish you also an inspiring, healthy, safe, good in all regards and happy New Year!
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I enjoyed seeing the flowers and vegetables, and the snow and icicles. There is an old saying in this hemisphere that without December one cannot fully appreciate May. Grass turns green in winter here, not what one would expect normally, but winter rains refresh the green, which grows much more slowly than when spring is in her prime.
There are still so many unanswered questions about covid-19. I think it will be at least 2022 before we see where things are going. For now it is making sure we eat well, get plenty of sleep, take the recommended precautions and try not to worry too much about what we cannot change. Anxiety fixes nothing and only lowers immunity. We are going through the seed catalogs and preparing for the coming year, and trying to stay positive as much as possible.
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Thank you Lavinia!
Yes, it might be good to have all seasons, however, I know how tired of snow one becomes when it’s already March. I have once experienced plus 20 degrees Celsius in March, that was when I was about 10 years, I lived in Latvia back then. I wouldn’t be sure which year that exactly was, but I was running around in a dress, blue and red, and got pneumonia afterwards. We used to have harsh winters, and obviously this short break of sun was not suitable to stay outdoors for many hours.
We are very cautious, too. Since it’s just us 2 older people here, we do not have to be too much afraid. We rarely go to the grocery store and then do some other shopping. Right now, it’s all locked down in Ontario, so no places to go even if one wanted. That’s fine with me: I always have something to do. In fact, days are way too short or that’s how it feels.
I would like to wish you all the best, Lavinia! We’ve been in touch for quite a while. It’s always good to read your newsletter, always great to find out how the farm and everybody is doing.
Stay healthy, enjoy your music, stay very safe and have a good and happy New Year!
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These are really good resolutions for the coming year, Inese, even if you did not call them that way.
It is easy to say that quality of attention, quality of work and quality of life have suffered; but it is more empowering to understand how we ourselves allow that, and then work on restoring and on improving the quality of our own attention, of our own work and of our own life.
I had to process a lot this year – tragedy, heart aches and some challenges after that.. In comparison, sheltering-in-place was manageable. It acted like a cocoon to my new situation. It gave me more time at home, time that I would have commuted and maybe wasted, and I was grateful for it. (I know that it is not the common situation.. But anyone who got very bad news before can sympathize that sheltering-in-place can be perceived as a time of restoration, reorientation and healing too, instead of another unreasonable restriction.)
Despite all the outer drama, I am concluding that 2020 was one of my best years, because I let go of toxic people for whom I tended to make excuses, though I was not fully conscious of it, I let go of beliefs that do not bring results, and I changed my spending habits and time management for the better. The awareness that kicked in after seeing the situation for what it was spread to other areas: once nothing and no one distracted me, I could solve issues that were very meaningful to me, though never urgent enough.
I have faith that 2021 will be a good year – especially for those who introspected and deciphered for themselves what a very unusual situation could mean to them personally.
Your photos are radiant and lovely!
A friendly New 2021 to your garden, household and you.
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Thanks!
I never make any resolutions because my point is: why to bother with listing things which one isn’t going to do anyway? What’s important and what we prioritize, we will do regardless. I have another background, and nobody was ever bothering with any resolutions say 60 years ago and back there in Europe. I do not intend to start that now when I am way past half a century.
Why I’m saying that quality is disappearing? Because when you are older, you’ve already seen many other times – poor, abundant, great and not that good. I’ve also lived in Europe up to 46 years and now I’ve been in Canada for almost 20. There are lots of things that I can compare. The comparison isn’t in favor of North America.
I worked teaching at high schools and colleges back then, but for a few recent decades, I’m just freelancing and teaching art. Art, in particular, as I create it and as you can see on my other website, requires high level of attention. After teaching thousands of students from between 12 and 80 years of age, I can definitely make some conclusions what the attention level at class was, for instance,10 years ago and what it is now.
I have had a chance to explore, observe and research the abilities of human brain. I’ve been in medical research for more than 35 years. Therefore, I share my observations. The lack of attention is absolutely terrifying. I do associate that with delegating too many tasks to devices.
Other than that, I’ve always had and followed, as well as complied with highest standards of work ethics. Therefore, I know that sloppy is sloppy when I see it. The same way I can judge quality or rather lack of it. You can read in other posts my other opinions about this matter.
Also, your comment doesn’t really relate that much to what I was saying. You should have rather written a post on your own blog about how you believe your year was. I simply have no idea who you are, therefore, I can just approximately outline what I was talking about in my post. I definitely do not want this to be described as some resolution because it absolutely isn’t.
I have blog friends who’ve been with me since 2011, I mean I have another website, too. So, yes, I know what to say to each one of them since I know their situation, but with new people, I’m sorry, I have no idea. It would be advisable to read in previous posts what is that I do and write about in order to understand what I meant with this article.
I wish you safe, healthy and happy New Year!
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Hello Inese, I don’t usually comment on your blog, but I feel like leaving a note in relation the topic at hand.
As a person with clinical experience of many years, are you of the view that it will be safe to take the V.A.C? Surely it would be risky, considering the short time of development – and considering the usual time-span it takes on average (5yrs+). Also, does this particular situation pose so much of a thr eat that an exception should be made, considering that statistcally mort ality is actually very low? I am not convinced we need it at all. There are organic solutions that are completely ignored or avoided. To me that seems to be bordering on negligence. Never in history did we care so much about a seasonal variant that affects only a fraction of the population/s. It is axactly this prioritisation over all other issues (medical conditions) that would make me avoid this solution that is put forward (with its new formulation different from any before and never properly tested). I think we should all pause and contemplate carefully the direction all of this is going and our postion/s in relation to it. If ever ethics were important that would be now.
With my best wishes,
J.J.
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Thanks!
While I didn’t really devote my post to vaccines and vaccination since it’s too broad of a topic, and I was kind of reviewing how my year went and what overall issues have affected it, my art, paintings and similarly, I can say only that every single case which involves anything medical needs to be treated as a unique case.
In time of globalization, it’s most peoples’ belief that everything applies to everybody, and that’s not true, nothing applies to one personally if they don’t want it to.
I have received all recommended vaccines and I recently had one more which I assumed was very necessary for me personally and taking into account age, medical condition, etc.
When it comes to a vaccine, one must understand that not vaccine on its own (just because it’s a vaccine) causes side effects. To deliver the vaccine, there are always integrated some suitable substances, and some of these substances can cause allergy or side effect. Side effects are caused by administration of any drug, any chemical substance and can arise with numerous nutrients, as well, natural or not, just think of allergy to nuts in their natural form.
The COVID-19 isn’t any seasonal variant, it’s a specific virus with it’s specific properties and mode of action.
Since it wasn’t my intention to deal with vaccine issues in my article, I am going to keep it brief. Whether one needs vaccine or not, depends on their condition, medical history including food allergies, the level of exposure and the risk of becoming very sick or potentially having a fatal outcome. COVID-19 affects very many systems of our body, and effects can last for a very long time, including mental effects, and we just do not know yet which of these are or are not reversible. We’ve had too less time.
I also do not intend to give any global response. Every person makes this decision on their own consulting with any medical expert they have access to.
I’m sorry, but my article was mostly about things which matter to me at this time, and not that much about any COVID issues. I love gardening, I am an artist, who paints every single day, and some global issues annoy me, like superficiality and lack of quality.
I would appreciate at least name or link or whatever. I’m talking to nobody at this point.
Have a safe, healthy and good New Year, then happiness will follow!
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lovely pictures, I especially loved the magnolias
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Thanks!
These pictures show some tiny bits of the previous year.
I cannot wait when the garden wakes up again. Therefore, I’m painting spring during the days when I feel ok. Winter is not a friend of mine, I usually run in big health issues, that’s apart from any COVDI-19 problems, thankfully, we don’t have these so far.
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feel the same way, except for that we really do love snow, but we’re definitely looking forfward to gardening in spring
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We have snow sometimes until the end of March and there’s a lot of shoveling, it’s very often when icy cold winds storm over. I cannot do lots of things any longer and skiing is one of them, so I don’t want more snow. When I lived in Latvia, we had lots of snow, too much of it, and now in Ontario, there’s sometimes also way too much of it. I never liked snow even in early childhood, that hasn’t changed.
That’s why I love spring, even when it’s not that pleasant in April. Last year, I could start planting only in June, it wasn’t a good spring.
Every gardener looks forward to digging soil and putting seeds into it. It will come, but after these nasty and cold snowstorms.
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simple solution: just send all the snow you don’t want to us; don’t mind the blizzards either
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If we could do that, we’d certainly send all March snowstorms and blizzards to Europe, that’s where you are right? The worst are late March snow events which can get into April. This year, hasn’t been that bad yet.
Days are getting longer and that’s good. More bright and sunny days wouldn’t disturb also. The daylight or lack of it really impacts my painting. I can only paint with good daylight since artificial light changes color, causes reflection of wet surface and balance is off, and it’s very difficult to take true pictures of paintings. I’m joggling between all natural and unnatural things.
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