South China, despite what is otherwise indicated on this sign, is not the center of the universe. This sign, as with so many other moments, allows me to both wonder with great curiosity at the vastness of the world and to find a great content in being able to look at it from what I consider to be the lovely vantage point of our creamery, farm and home in South China. Which happens to be a world unto itself. So we hold this space, and from here we contemplate our wintry place within it all and where we will go, and grow, from here. In the meantime, the lists may be long, but there is always tea & coffee to be had with friends, walks in the woods, cars to be serviced or sold, blood and sweat to be put into our efforts, sap to be collected & boiled, syrup to be admired and there is food to be enjoyed. As a dear friend of mine has said, 'if there is one thing we can count on it's that food has yet to lose it's flavor." In the meantime there is the dairy to be tended to, greek yogurt to be lightly sweetened with maple, chores to be done, greenhouses to be checked on in the wee morning hours, wee onions to be absolutely swooned over and wee baby chickens to be picked up, unexpectedly, on the way home from a yogurt delivery and raised in a cozy, lamp-lit box in the bathroom. All of this to occupy us while we wait, patiently, for longer, warmer days.