The kids are back to school and therefore it’s a return to the 6.30am alarm that I’d been free from for six blissful weeks. Two weeks in, and we’re starting to notice that, whilst not dark, it’s not exactly light out there at that time now either. This is always a blow to the Bradford family. Between us all, we’ve had 85 years’ experience of it getting darker in the winter yet it somehow takes us by surprise every autumn.
We are prone to getting a bit glum as the light leaves, so we’ve worked on a ‘lovely list’ on the theme of the colder months. Here’s what we’ve come up with so far:
- that lovely misty light in the morning that picks out enormously fat-bodied spiders sitting on their vast webs (although not so good when you walk through the aforesaid webs on your way to feed the chickens in the morning…)
- it being cold enough at night to snuggle under the duvet without wanting to kick it off five minutes later
- open fires
- coming in from the cold and warming up with a good cuppa (or, even better, a hot chocolate)
- tights and boots (this was obviously just the female members of the family…)
- satsumas and clementines
- frost – we love to examine all the pretty patterns on the windscreens of the cars parked on the route to school
- red wine really comes into its own when the weather gets colder
- the leaves turning – achingly beautiful
- bonfire night
- hallowe’en
- Christmas
- soup
- being inside and warm with nowhere we have to go to when it’s dark/cold/raining outside
- seeing the sunrise when you’re making your morning cuppa
- kicking up leaves
- conkers
- snuggly jumpers
- porridge for breakfast
- board games and books
- snow (a very rare treat round these parts!)
Any more? Please add your thoughts!