You know you're from Alaska when....

...you look at the temperature and end up (seriously) thinking, "Oh! It's only -15 today." I wore thin leggings under my pants instead of thick longjohns. :)
It's absolutely amazing how quickly things change around here after the solstice. It's still the middle of winter, still among the darkest days. In fact, it's been cloudy so we haven't seen the sun in days. And it's cold. But there's a palpable sense of anticipation. Maybe it's the new year, maybe it's the thought that winter is about half over, or maybe it's the leftover joy of the holidays and high of having been on vacation, but people just seem happy and mildly excited. Life is full of promise right now.
Even the indoor plants are noticing the change. They're covered in green new growth. They should have been wilting and brown after not being watered for two weeks, but even the plants seem excited about the time of year. I did have a couple of casualties. Two of the cherry tomatoes, which I was planning to get rid of anyway since they stopped producing, dried out and died. The third is still going strong, though. I got three tomatoes yesterday, and noticed three more green ones. !!
The library looks so different without the other two in the windows, though. My boss laughed when I was cutting them down because they were so dry "it was like confetti". They had a heating vent under them, so the dry leaves that were shaken off flew around me. Their spot won't be bare for too long, though, since I'm planning to plant new ones. Determinates this time, rather than the indeterminate variety these were. They grew out of control and I had to trim them back too much. For indoors, or other small spaces, make sure you get determinate varieties of tomato.
All is not sad, though, because I planted the new little starts that I'd been growing roots for. We now have one new begonia plant and three new jade plants. I might have to bring in more yogurt containers to plant things in! Also, find new places for them....
I'm still working on what plants I want to order this year, and I think I'll need to send my list to L to see what she'd want to split with me.
Perhaps its Friday, maybe it's the effect of wearing my new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt (my Christmas present from my best friend), or perhaps this energy around me is infectious. I'm so excited for what 2012 will bring my way and I hope anyone reading this feels the same.