We’ve had the freaking longest winter I’ve ever experienced.

It’s mid-April, and the temperature here in the Black Forest is around 0 degrees celsius, where it’s been hovering for the better part of three weeks. Nothing is blooming. The lilacs are still in their compact little buds, hovering to protect themselves from the brutal winds coming from the north. This churning system should be ending today and tomorrow, with temperatures creeping up to springtime by the middle of next week. All of which has put our permagarden plan severely behind schedule. I imagine my trip to the garden store next week will be packed in with all the other frustrated people trying to get something happening in their yards and window boxes.

The upside of this is that spring is dragged out, and who doesn’t like a long spring, right? This painfully slow unfurling makes me conscious of the subtle beauty and fragile nature of colour and texture that happens when winter fades.

Color and texture are always a critical part of design in general, so I love foraging and hiking just to see what shades of the season are really drawing my attention. I love the dark purple edges on baby nettle leaves and how olive and yellow the new buds are. Think of nature as a way of pairing colors in your home; you can never, ever grow wrong if you use a field of spring greens as your inspiration.

I am finding these times are much like this winter that won’t let go. Our lives seem to be in a holding pattern that can’t move forward. We know it’s just temporary, but that doesn’t make the present any easier. The way I’ve survived this is to have several projects going where I can move forward and get a sense of accomplishment.

One such project is honing in on my personal aesthetic and style and bringing that through in my work. You can see it in this website. I’ve been changing my site forever, but I now come to it and think, yeah, that’s it. This is me. This feels right and good and reflects who I am. As a web designer, I’m always analysing the sites of clients to make sure there’s a match between the client and the website aesthetic. Doing this for myself is much more challenging. There’s a method in this madness - I’m honing in on this aesthetic (and trying it out here on the site) before I must make the final design decisions relating to our barn restoration. Because this is probably going to be the last restoration I do of this kind. And I want to to reflect how far we’ve come both professionally with our hospitality and wine expertise and with our personal style.

Babarolo, our wine business is about to take a big new step into the future, expanding into new areas (stay tuned!!). We’ll be offering more wines and also using out new kitchen and dining rooms to host wine tastings and dinners. It’s super exciting and that’s also giving me great hope to look to the future. We’ve chosen an entrepreneurial path for our golden years, it seems, but it keeps us active and busy - plus, we do everything together, which is super gratifying.

So…. while I’m waiting, I’m growing and learning. Using the time to develop new ideas, new designs. New recipes. There is so much!

Keep dreaming and keep your spirits up. Try new things while you’re waiting for life to continue - because the wait is also your life!