Winter Blues-ish

I am a lover of Spring, a lover of Summer and a lover of Autumn. Specifically (or pacifically, depending at which point of my life you knew me) I love Summer. I love long lazy days in spent lounging in the sun enjoying its gracious warmth. I love getting up when it's light outside and really feeling like you can make the most of the day with it's bounty of sunny hours. I love being justified in wearing sunglasses and eating ice cream from cones with chocolate flakes and sweet, sticky strawberry sauce.


I like the hope of Spring. The sheer optimism that warmer times are coming.


And I love the cozy, crispness of Autumn. Winding down from the Summer hype and chilling out.


The bright sparks among you will have noticed no mention and no appreciate of Winter. That's because I don't like the snow, sleet, slush and ice. I don't like getting up in the morning when it's still dark and I don't like getting home in the evenings with it being dark still. (I would never survive in Alaska!!) I don't like how the combination of the cold of the air and warmth of the central heating dries out my skin. And I don't like having a runny nose and cold.


I think it's quite clear that I'm not a fan of Winter.


Well, that ever so slightly changed today. And seeing as the snow is coming back maybe tonight or tomorrow, I thought I better immortalise my slightly cosier feelings towards Winter before the snow makes me forget.


It wasn't anything special. I took a walk up to the post box and forward on some mail for the woman who used to live in my flat and while I was walking, it was cold. Cold. Minus temperatures. But as I was walking I took in a big, big deep breath. The kind where you feel like you couldn't possibly hold anymore air in your lungs. But the air was cold. Really cold. So cold it felt a little painful to hold so much in my lungs. But it made me feel so alive.


And I enjoyed it so much that I took a major detour on the way home and walked through the park. The grass was crunchy under my feet. And people were all wrapped up in cute hat and scarf combos. Walking their dogs. I don't really like pets but I wouldn't mind a dog to walk.


So, today, while we have no snow and it was just a cold, crisp Winters day.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

Image from BBC.co.uk

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
And I'm sure if we actually had a fire

(instead we have little wall mounted electric heaters in each room)

 that it would be so delightful. 

And since I have places to go 

(I missed two French lectures today because my car won't go up the hill)

 please don't snow, please don't snow, 

PLEASE DON'T SNOW! 

On it's knees

There is one sure way to bring England to it's knees. When it snows, England comes to a standstill. The tiniest flutter of those precious white flakes (who am I kidding, I don't like the snow. I certainly don't think that it's precious anyway.) and people lock themselves in their houses and go into a mini hibernation until it's all melted away. 


I have to admit, I am probably a little more than guilty of doing this. I just don't the impracticality of it. I explained to Mr.K (who was slightly amused by this idea) when it started snowing yesterday morning, that if it was up to me, when it snows, it would only snow on gardens, parks and other vast expanses of land. Basically, anywhere other than the paths and roads. Because the thing that I like the least about snow is that it means that it takes ages for people to travel anywhere, it's more dangerous and it's just basically very impractical. 

Mr. K & I like to do our bit though. We ventured out of our toasty little house, wrapped up in coats, hats, scarves & mittens to spread grit on our car park and hill. The hill is a monster hill. Steep, steep, STEEP! (The capitals are absolutely necessary here.) So we filled our mixing bowls with salt and marched up the hill several times, spreading our wares along the way. After we'd done this a few times and I had more grit down the back of my nails that I would have liked, we admired our work. In all honesty, it didn't look like it had made the hugest of differences. But the snow was a little patchier, and we felt like we'd given a little service to our neighbours. Win win.