Shades of Winter

For months now, I've been walking in the neighborhoods surrounding my seminary in Washington D.C., and I've wondered if we would have decorated houses once we got to January, which I think of as a month without holidays that inspire decoration.  I am coming to realize how wrong I was.  Some of the decorations are December leftovers, while others have used elements of Christmas while adding others, like the pastel colored animals in this yard scene:

Yesterday, I was taking my walk, trying to get it in before the forecast rains came.  I noticed this front door and flag:

I've never lived in a place where people decorated for the Chinese lunar new year.  And to be fair, I have no idea if this kind of decorating is legitimate or cultural appropriation, but the larger fact remains.  In South Florida, as diverse as it was, I don't remember much acknowledgement of this holiday.  Here, I could have gone to any number of parades; there is a Chinatown in DC, after all.

It's an interesting time, in terms of decorations.  We still have some houses with Christmas trees, either beaming from windows or on the porch or the yard:

Some wreaths have transitioned to a different holiday (pink and red ribbons and baubles for Valentine's Day), while others are committed to wintry boughs and fruits.

I have also been delighting in the colors of nature this time of year, which is a much less monochromatic experience than I expected.  I do realize that people who spend the season of winter in a place that gets more snow would enjoy a different vista.

The predominant colors I see on my walks these days are grays and browns--but there are so many shades of gray and brown.  I also see a large amount of green, and a variety of green shades.  The splash of red.  Sometimes the red is a batch of berries on a bush, and sometimes, it's a cardinal.

My memory of winter from a different place, South Carolina in the mid 1990's, is one of longing for warmer weather, longing for an early spring.  This year, I'm enjoying this winter in D.C.  It's such a change from the winter weather we had in extreme southeast Florida for the past 20 years.  It's such a relief to have a break from the heat and the sun.

Again, I know that others have a different experience of winter, particularly this month which has been overcast and gloomy.  I fully expected to have a mild case of depression myself, just as I used to do in the mid 1990's.  It will be interesting to see what happens as we move into February.