Let me make one thing clear: I am NOT a morning person.  Over the years, my waking time has been altered to be earlier and earlier until now it is 5 am on weekdays. It is hard for me to wake up. I am grumpy. I need a lot of coffee. I don’t really want to say too much for about an hour. But over the years, I have come to love the morning.

I like the quiet. I like the time with the dogs outside at 5:30 am when it’s just us and the owls, the newspaper dudes, and the very occasional jogger. I like experiencing the weather for the first time of the day. I like feeling like I have a jump on the day. That’s why on the weekends when I wake up a bit later, I feel like I might have missed something. But I do like my sleep after a long week.

Here in North Texas, morning is the only good time to work in the garden through most of the year. Even now, by the time my work day is over, it’s too dark for doing much more than watering (and if you remember earlier posts this week, lots of stuff is no longer viable). In the morning, the sun is coming up, I can see the little bitty weeds and catch bugs before they eat up the crops. It’s cool, it’s peaceful, well, except for my neighbors’ chickens who usually get fed about the time I am puttering in the garden.

The only problem is there’s not much garden to putter in right now. So lately I’m doing chores. Prepping food for dinner. Emptying the dishwasher. Productive, but hardly a lovely way to start the day.

I’ve got to fix that. Any suggestions for a better way to start my day while I wait for the thaw to happen?

Today’s gratuitous dog photo:

the day we met Godiva. that’s Bruce’s arm.