winter cometh!!

It’s getting dark earlier than usual and the air has a little nip to it. The thought crosses my mind as driving back home I turn a bend and see a cart with a mound of peanuts. Nestled precariously on the top is a smoking clay pot to keep the roasted nuts nice and warm. It is perhaps one of the more enduring images of the onset of winter.

 I love noticing the small changes that herald the coming season. Early mornings that are so much more beautiful. The warm sunshine breaks through overhead foliage into misty rays before becoming a dappled shade on the ground. Morning dew touches every little leaf, every blade of grass, every intricate cobweb so that they glisten and sparkle as if adorned with millions of tiny diamonds!

People out in the mornings will start wearing light sweaters or throw a muffler round their neck. Wood fire smoke will hang low over hutments in the evening giving a surreal feel to the atmosphere. As the temperature falls further out will come the heavy woolens. Schoolchildren will huddle on rickshaws bundled up in blazers and scarves. In the cold nights bonfires will appear on roadsides like beacons of hope to all the pavement dwellers lending the much needed warmth in their cold dreary lives. When we spend all of summer trying to duck into a shade to avoid the blistering sun it is such a relief to be able to wallow in it in winter. To be able to go for long walks without the heat and humidity bothering you. It’s the time for bonfires and barbeques!! A time for Christmas carols and New Year parties!

 Winter brings with it the unparalleled joy of curling up under a thick quilt with a book and waiting for your frozen toes to thaw……..Of holding your cup of hot tea with both your hands to feel the warmth seep in……of smelling the frost as it hits you square in the face…. Of soaking in the delicious warmth of the afternoon sun right to the bones and feel the fuzzy sleepy feeling that comes with it……aah winter cometh!!!!