...wintering

on Monday I woke to a world covered in frost!

There's always about a week after I take down the Christmas decorations and give the flat it's after festivities clean where I constantly think about springtime coming. For this week, in my head springtime is in a few weeks.

And then the temperature here hits -6 and I realise we have a couple of months of freezing cold winter before anything approaching spring happens. There's no Christmas to look forward to, so I make my mind up to be excited about and contented with the small things.

The days are slowly lengthening. Most of my journey to work is done in daylight, and at work, I don't close the curtains on the dark outside 'til 5pm, rather than at quarter to four. On sunny days, as it gets to early afternoon, there is that beautiful goldness to the light that only happens in winter.

The flat, having first felt very bare, even with all my clutter, now feels fresh and lovely.

The view from where I sit - the midwinter mantle, and my bright, cheery things!

Detail from the mantle - 'TEA SET' hair pins and ring, from
Rachael of Bunny's Beads for Christmas. My friends are ace.

My sister made me a beautiful mustardy-gold hat and scarf for Christmas, and worn with my red satchel of joy, I feel bright and cheerful going out into the frosty world.

Hat! by Hazel, the best sister ever.
Also, check how long my hair is!

I have long been a lover of hot apple juice with ginger, but have recently discovered that a lump of crystallised ginger, rather than raw, makes it sweet and warm and delicious.  I have also finally learned to like herbal tea - I am particularly fond of Pukka's Three Ginger at the moment, and I have a cup of their Night Time before I go to sleep most nights. As I have two pots with infusers, I am going to experiment a bit with herbal infusions in these winter months.

Ginger tea in my V&A mug. :)

The living room window sill is now a window seat for reading
andtea drinking  and interneting.It is much brighter and
 cheerier than this-so bright that I can't get a good photo!

I have been reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman on my ebook reader. When I was at uni, sociology was my favourite of the theoretic subjects I studied and I miss it. Gilman's work has a strong feminist message, and she herself was an inspiring person, and I am very much enjoying it. I will always read loads, so as setting an 'amount' target for myself in a year is pointless, this year I aim to read more sociological, scientific and political work. I am also very much looking forward to attending the next Blook Club. Life has very much gotten in the way of me going to previous ones, so I am excited. To keep track of what I'm reading this year, and because I find patterns in reading interesting I've started a page on here. It's a work in progress, I will try to make it more dynamic, but at least it's there!

...home, refreshed, and ready for the new year.

The rooftops of the farm from a high hill in one of the fields.
The obscured mountain in the background is Cadair Idris.

So, Wales was lovely. So lovely that instead of staying five days, we stayed nine. Dave's parent's farm (soon to be run as a smallholding) is lovely - amore than 200 year old house filled with interesting details and corners, heated by wood burning stoves, with wood grown and harvested from their own land. We did a small bit of helping with the harvesting. We walked and drove around North Wales, a place that seems remote but is raw and beautiful,where there are proper communities and every view is extraordinarily lovely. Like any proper holiday in the UK, we went to the beach in the tipping rain. We celebrated Christmas (I made pheasant pate for Christmas dinner starter and it all got eaten!), met new neighbours, spent time with family, ate and drank and were merry. We saw in the new year surrounded by close family and new friends. We read, we watched comedy ans soaps on TV(Dave made us watch Eastenders purely because we knew Pat was going to die), and drank copious cups of tea. It was lovely.  I had unbroken sleep every night. It was SILENT there. I had that odd sense that I never knew what time it was, because I didn't need to know - there was no schedule.

(I had intended to add some anecdotal photos here, but blogger is being silly)

I have come back feeling like I have had a proper holiday. The last time I felt that was two years ago, and it's lovely. I spent today taking down almost all of the Christmas things (except the tree), and cleaning and tidying - a New Year's clean, if a little late. I made bread, and in an effort to get back into pre-preparing work night dinners, made a pot of soup. I listened to radio 4. It is so lovely to be home. It is more lovely to finally be happy enough here to be pleased to be home.

Tomorrow I go back to work, and I can't wait to see the kids.

Last year was really difficult for us. There were times when it felt like life was at breaking point. Stuff was just too hard, there was too much. I am normally someone who pushes on through bad stuff, so admitting that says a lot about how hard.

This year has begun well - I am rested, hopeful, and ready to take on whatever is thrown at me. I love my work and my life is full of lovely things and experiences and people.  I have a wee list to work through before I hit 30, so those are my new year's intentions this year.

Happy New year everyone - I hope you are full of hope too!! I am ready to kick 2012's arse.