EDP Column 7
January shivers in. A lot of people complain about this, the coldest month. I’ve always rather liked it, maybe because I was born in January and consequently enjoy winter. Mind you I enjoy the different seasons.
When we lived in Australia I missed the cold. I love the frosty bright mornings here, when the ponies whiskers are hoar frosted and there are horse angels on the ground where they’ve been lying down sleeping at night. The world feels fresh and new and there is hope for a good year ahead. There is usually some snow, in Norfolk, joyous for the Labradors and The Darling. Last year we made a snowman, always a magical being when you are very small, and pulled The Darling about on David’s 60 yr old toboggan, still going strong and with many memories of David’s Yorkshire boyhood.
Hair raising adventures in 1937, on Stearsby Bank; David lying flat and brother Richard on top, they whizzed down the hill and landed up in a hedge. They also punted the toboggan along the icy, snowy roads using a hay fork. Last year The Darling made baby angels in the snow by lying down and waving her arms and legs up and down. Snow is meant to come from angels plucking geese.
Of course we are very lucky in Norfolk with all our winter visitors. The Pink Feet, White Fronts, and my particular favourite, the Brent Geese. One of the most marvellous experiences is to sit on Roydon Common, on a late afternoon, and watch Hen Harriers glide in to roost. We always visit Welney to see the feeding of the Berwick and Whooper Swans. Migration is truly one of the wonders of the natural world.
Winter is the time for wearing big jumpers; these are sadly neglected items of clothing as homes, workplaces and shops are so hot now. How lovely it is to snuggle into an old favourite woolly jumper to face the elements, plus hats and scarves. A friend of my mothers has made me a huge stripey woolly scarf which I wear to great effect out walking.
Frosty morning walks are bliss too, the dogs don’t get muddy, there are no insects to bite you, no danger of adders and not too many other people around either. Another advantage of the winter is having to do very little in the garden: the wallflowers gamely put up with any sort of weather all winter to flower gloriously in the spring.
Then there are the long evenings by the fire, lying on the sofa, covered in dogs, reading, full of good food and wine. John Clare puts it perfectly: ‘Tis Winter! And I love to read in doors, when the moon hangs her crescent up on high: While on the window shutters the wind roars, and storms like furies pass remorseless by, how pleasant on a feather bed to be, or sitting by the fire, in fancy soar, with Wilton or with Dante to regions high, or rend fresh volumes we’ve not seen before, or o’er Old Bartons ‘melancholy’ pore,’
So three cheers for winter say I!
