After a quick walk in the forest, I’ll be turning things around–literally. I’m not out of my winter funk but I am trying to keep busy with projects. This time, we’ll take care of an urgent task: making my plants happy.

It’s almost sunset but there’s some sunshine. Pepper and I are just going for a quick walk, just to enjoy the sunshine a little bit before the sun vanishes.

I mean, we don’t actually get any sunshine on our face, because the sun is way too low, but just seeing it behind the trees makes all the difference already. And it’s just so nice out! It’s just barely over freezing, so the snow is slowly melting, but there’s just a little bit left.

I don’t know how this will look in a couple of days if it keeps getting warmer, or warm enough for the snow to melt. Everything is already overflowing, and there is too much water in this forest already.

So, I don’t know how that’s going to go when all the snow melts, but, yeah, we’re going to see. For now, I’m just happy to be outside with some actual sunshine.

Now, let’s have a look at our temporary pond. This is a temporarily flooded forest.

When it dries up, then there is a lot less water here. But, right now, the lake is filled to the very rim. Like, completely filled up…

What’s really cool, in summer, or when it’s dry, this completely dries up, and then there’s just a ditch.

Things grow there that aren’t water plants, and the animals dig around in the bottom and all that. It’s really cool. And then, in spring, there are frogs laying their eggs here. That’s really cool to see!

I really hope that this year I don’t miss the actual spawning events of those frogs. Because, last year, I saw the eggs but then I never actually got to see any frogs [hatch]. I’m hoping this year, that’ll be better. Last year, they were right here in that area down there, so that was really cool.

I was out just a few days ago, and I was freezing, even though I was wearing shoes. And right now, I’m walking barefoot in the snow, and I’m not cold, because there is less snow on the ground, and especially less wind.

But just look how overwhelmed this forest is by all the water. Let me turn the camera around…

With every inch the sun set, temperatures dropped, too, so we headed home soon after.

I’d been meaning to add some support for my toilet paper plants for a while. I finally added some bamboo and strings.

My plants weren’t happy up on my shelf, even with some artificial lights. I’ll have to do something about that.

As soon as the sun sets, I feel like it’s too late to rearrange furniture, though. So, I quickly tackled some refills, and added the finally arrived beans to a crate. Dealing with furniture would need to wait until the next day.

I can’t tell you how much it bothers me that I ordered in bulk and received many small bags instead…

And don’t get fooled by the paper look of these bags. The inside is lined with plastic. This kind of packaging is very hard to impossible to recycle, so these are in many ways worse than plastic.

This is greenwashing, nothing more, nothing less. The look fools consumers into thinking they did well… There is nothing sustainable about getting four bags of mixed-material salt instead of one plastic bag.

The next morning, Pepper and I quickly checked on the garden. It looks dismal here at the moment but everything is in fine shape.

And then it was time to deal with the plants. I’d turned this shelf upright just a few months ago. But it’s okay. The plants’ needs come first.

I’d moved the shelf upright to have more room on the floor. But, to be frank, I don’t work out in this room anyway.

My plants seem to dislike winter as much as I do. None of them are doing great. Hang in there, little friends. We’ll make it to spring.

I’d thought the grow light would be enough, but apparently these plants need more than some artificial light. I get it. The daylight lamp on my desk will never replace the sun for me, either.

It didn’t take long to empty out the shelf. My room is very minimal, so there isn’t much in here.

This branch is one of my few sentimental items. Yes, a piece of drift wood. I found it on a beach in California. My husband carried it up a steep path. It’s moved with us ever since.

But for now, let’s get this shelf turned.

My room is very small. And I need to sleep somewhere, so there is very limited choice in how to arrange things.

I tried moving the shelf in front of the window, but then remembered that I needed plants on top. I would need to move the plants to open the window–not an option. So, back it went. Finally, the plants could move to their new home.

In winter, there is a yoga mat underneath my bedding to add extra warmth from below. My downstairs neighbor doesn’t heat her apartment, so I have to deal with the effects of that.

My bedding went back into the shelf first. It was the only thing I knew where to put. A long overdue clean later, I began placing items, then moving them around and around.

I inherited these two crates from my former neighbors. I still don’t know if I want to keep them. Hidden storage invites stuff. I don’t like stuff.

As this is the only non-wardrobe storage in my room, it holds a weird assortment of things. Camera equipment, exercise equipment, crochet supplies, some unavoidable office supplies.

Slowly, I was figuring out the right spot for everything. I am still sure it’ll all keep moving around a bit. As long as I am stuck in this apartment, I’ll rearrange things to stay sane. And that’s okay.

Accomplished, I wound down for the day–or tried to.

An improvised spread with walnuts from our tree and bell pepper made a quick dinner. And my mind was already on the next project waiting to be tackled. But more on that next time.

So long, and thanks for being here!