Winter Cheer

The kitchen/living room side of the cottage smells beautiful at the moment. I always have a pot of hyacinths at this time of year and it lifts the spirits at a time that always reminds me of Narnia under the reign of Jadis The White Witch. A period of ice and darkness, when ‘it’s winter, and has been for ever so long, always winter but never Christmas’  With no big holidays to look forward to for a while winter often feels like it’s stretching on indefinitely.

It has been a beautiful sunny day here but very cold. We walked along the lane for half an hour and Charlie amused himself by running up and down the walls. In the summer he is listening out for mice and will occasionally disgrace himself by pouncing and digging out their nests – little balls of dried grass. Today he was sniffing out fox and hare trails across the lane. There were patches of herb robert in flower in sheltered spots and clumps of new growth on the weeds in the verges. In the garden the bulbs are showing, Imbolc is just around the corner!