Really, I do like winter

I love the colours of the leaves as the cold weather sends them scattering on the winds.  I love the skeletal silhouettes of the naked trees, the smell of wood fires bringing warmth into homes around me.  

 

I love being able to wear scarves and jackets and jeans and boots.  Sitting in front of a warming fireplace, drinking red wine and eating delicious slow-cooked casseroles with loads of creamy mashed potato.  Flannelette sheets, slippers, beanies, hot chocolate, soups....all good and all best experienced in winter.

What I don't like though is the drizzly, foggy, miserably overcast and soggy windy weather that goes with it here where I live.  In other places in the world winter means crisp, sunshiny days.  Days where grass snaps and crackles underfoot, where breath steams in the cold air.  Days that cry out for finding a warm, sheltered spot in the sun and curling up with a knee rug and a book.  Days that invite you outside for a brisk, cheek-chilling walk around the garden.  

We don't get days like that here.

In this place where I live, winter is characterised by rain, drizzle, wind, cold and a bit more rain for good measure.  A good four months of it.  Seeing the sun more than 1 day a week is a luxury, something to be celebrated for the immeasurable joy it brings.  As is being able to go outside without gumboots and an umbrella.  Drives me batty and is most likely the sole cause to drive me to drink (more!).  

Last year the rain started in May, bringing with it the cold.  It then didn't stop until about February this year - just after the floods.  No wonder people were shitty.  Everyone was, and still is, over it.

I want to see the sun.  I want to be able to hang the sheets on the line in the morning and get them dried on the same day.  I want to mop the floor and have it dry within the hour.  I want to open the windows and let the (bitterly cold) breeze blow out the cobwebs and freshen things up a little.  But most of all I want to see the sun.

So today, being our fourth day of wet (plus cold) this week, I will in protest of this lack of sun consume with gusto a full bottle of red wine with dinner tonight, just to get through it my message across.  It's a tough cause I know but I'm willing to give it a crack.

In the meantime, I shall commence my protest by heading to the heated shopping centre to wander the shops and look at all the pretty things....along with the rest of the population.  Maybe winter will hear our protests and bring out the sun tomorrow.