Making Winter - 10 things

I love winter - it is my favourite season.  I savour the quiet, the peace, the cold and the thoughtfulness that comes with winter.  I am very happy to potter rather than do, which suits the colder months.  I discard my sewing and pick up my knitting instead.  I bake pies rather than make jam.  I wear warm tights and thick boots and read books.

Today in London it feels as if winter has very definitely come to an end.  The sun was up early, and shone all day.  I cleared the back garden - raking, digging, pruning, sweeping, weeding and tying back.  Then I tidied up the front garden - more weeding, more sweeping and more pruning.  I was outside in the garden for over four hours, and ended up with a warm, pink glow in my cheeks, and a mildly achey back.  As I worked I thought back over the winter and it seemed to me to have passed by in a flash. 



Gardening, today



Raking up the winter debris

Hard at work

These are my highlights.

• The arrival of a small, and very precious niece - my little sister is now a mother.  I feel pretty much as Soule Mama did in this post.
• Going to see three Olympic test events - the Handball, the Track Cycling and the Diving.
• Finding out about baked oatmeal.
• Making winter blankets.
• Mixed emotions when I paid a visit back to the village where I grew up.
• Meeting a lovely kitchenful of other bloggers for the first time, and finding out that they were in fact just like old friends.
• The return of G's drumming.
• So much knitting - a yellow hat, a green cowl, junior toast, my favourite shawl and two very slow knits which finally got finished.
• Making, and eating, loads of coleslaw. 
• Drinking cups of tea and coffee out in the garden, wrapped up in my woollens - not every day, but often.

It has been a very good one, but I'm looking forward to more days like today - outside, in the garden, turning my face to the spring sunshine.