January, the winter month with probably the most shivery feelings involved, this year being no exception, is a month with a dual personality. Even the harsh sound of the month’s name grates on one. But January took its name full of stern consonants from a two–faced god so it does have some redeeming features.     

The god Janus, supposedly adopted from the Greeks and given a Roman name, is sculpted, painted, and carved as a stern figure whose head looks in two opposite directions, backward and forward. He was known to preside over conflicts and wars; the gates of Roman cities were often embellished with his likeness and the gates themselves expressed Janus’ views of in and out, before and after, the passage of time and endings. In fact a gate or door itself works for passage in both directions.

If you are like me you may have been wearing Janus’ backward-looking face when taking down the tree and Christmas décor. Often that can be a time and activity that takes our thoughts and feelings, maybe with a certain sadness, to the past and certainly to the passage of time.

Once home, hearth, and eaves are restored to their more usual uncluttered state, our thoughts are given rein to adopt Janus’ forward, future-looking face. Though but halfway through the official months of winter, there are signs out there! Good, uplifting, inspiring signs; we just have to look closely for them. Eyes front, Janus!

On a recent day of sunshine, driving home from down-Island, I was wearing my forward looking Janus head … albeit with sunglasses … and couldn’t help but feel pretty positive about the coming days. The sun was behind me and its light fell warmly on the potpourri of trees that border our highway.

Here was the best time of year to work at the identification of deciduous trees without their foliage. In summer a tree’s specific shape, its skeleton, is well disguised by its hard-working leaves. In January, trees undressed show us their underpinnings, the sturdy structures that hold them up, the parts of the tree connecting their leaves with the life-giving roots. How many of them can you identify by their skeletal shapes?

A tree with one sturdy trunk and up-reaching branches may be a cottonwood; one with a trunk spreading into many wide reaching or even somewhat drooping branches may be a maple. Trees with a tangle of disoriented branches may be our native oak. Many trees of the same variety, growing together in damp places may be the ever present alder. Trees hide a lot under their leaves; can we use the winter clues to identify them? Sometimes when you come upon a large grouping of alders, especially on a sunny day, they display a welcome sign of the months to come with the rosy hue of their collective catkins.

And then there are the trees and shrubs around our homes … the ones with which we can get close and personal. Take some time to look at the tips and along the length of their branches … there they are! The coming spring’s burgeoning buds, ready and waiting for the returning sun’s warming rays to make them expand, unfold, open their greenness to the world.

There’s a bushy, spreading camellia tree close to a big window here. Among its glossy leaves – leaves  which hang in there all winter – are  pale, round buds, the size of a filbert and getting fatter every day. These frosty nights have left the leaves folded and drooping, but come daylight they return to their former shape, and it won’t be too long now before those buds burst into thousands of pink, round-petalled  blooms. Any time I glance out that window, it’s with Janus’ forward looking face!

And just to glance back for a moment … even before Christmas, the snowdrops at my front door were above ground and showing the snow white buds of their first spring flowers to come!

Which of Janus’ faces will you favour this winter? For remember, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”

Nancy Whelan
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