Enjoying the Quiet Days of Winter

These are the quiet days of January when the world seems to be slumbering.  When we pause and rest a while from the excesses and energies expended in the festive season.  These are the days I have always valued.

In January the streets of London are quiet, free from tourists and all feels calm.  The hush that comes in those magical in between days of Christmas and New Year is extended into those first weeks of the year.  This year is of course no different and yet completely different.  Many of us may be feeling blurred around the edges.  Perhaps still a little afraid as we stumble from one year like no other into another where fear, sickness and sadness remain prevalent. Or maybe, we feel the shoots of hope slowly growing within us.

Whichever it is, those of us who live in the northern hemisphere are still facing at least another couple of months of winter and quite likely another couple of months of living in a lockdown.  This certainly limits those things we can do. Restaurants, many shops, cinemas, theatres, museums and galleries are all closed.  Even seeing friends and family is not permitted unless you are ‘bubbled’ with them.  A natural reaction is to struggle to see beyond this bleakness.  We have all felt the gloominess that descends as the light closes in on another wearisome winter day.  To embrace our situation, to enjoy these quiet days takes effort and determination.  We must be much more creative in how we spend our time, and must look beyond what we can’t, and towards what we can.  Finding those ways in which to embrace winter quietly and calmly will lead us into a spring bursting with life and light and hope.

Winter Walks

Walking in winter means preparing for damp air, a cold that seeps into the bones, and a flatness to the light not seen at any other time of year.  It can also mean crisp, bright mornings, frosted grass, weak milky sunshine and pink skies. Where ever we live, urban or rural, city or village, coast or inland, there will always be somewhere we can walk. Wherever it is, just be prepared to look up and out and around, and absorb your surroundings. Walk mindfully, with an alertness and awareness.  Engage with the landscape by absorbing sounds and smells, textures and patterns. In the city this might be, shop windows, or buildings or architecture. In the country an awareness of the sounds of birds, or the colour of flowers, the shapes of leaves or the scents in the air is hugely therapeutic.

Even the dampest day will have us returning home with a little more energy, perhaps rosier cheeks and an appreciation of the home we are returning to. Embrace how things look and feel in winter, for soon it will be spring!

 Winter Reading

Without realising it my reading has gradually become more seasonal.  I spent all of December reading deliciously Christmas books. Christmas crime from PD James and Arthur Conan Doyle; country Christmas’s courtesy of Miss Read; Christmas. Romance and friendship during a snowy winter in Scotland from Rosamund Pilcher and the gorgeous Calm Christmas by Beth Kempton.  In the summer I read stories set on the beaches of Cornwall and Norfolk, and now in the depths of winter I find myself wanting to read books set in snowy places. A Heart bent out of Shape by Emylia Hall set in Switzerland is on my winter reading list.

However you read, settling into a cosy chair with a steaming cup of tea and a gently glowing candle by your side whilst the wind whistles and the rain beats against the windows is heavenly.  This is a wonderful way to practice self care at at time when our minds and bodies may be feeling a little fragile.  Winter is the time for losing your self in books.  Reading through a series can be an excellent winter reading activity. I have a number of series of books I’m working my way through at the moment, and intend to give them all plenty of attention in the coming weeks.

Winter Cooking

Generous, silky soups, packed with wholesome vegetables; shepherds pie covered in a creamy blanket of buttery mashed potato; fruit crumbles oozing the sweet juices of blackberries gathered in the autumn, and ginger cake, damp and sticky, enjoyed warm from the oven.  The flavours of winter are right there.  I have always found solace in cooking.  There is something intrinsically mindful about creating food.  Whilst reading the recipe, chopping and stirring and bringing it altogether, attention is focused simply on those actions.  Banana bread and sourdough may have been a thing during the first lockdown, but now, it is soups which are taking centre stage. There is not a week goes by when I don’t make soup.  The current favourite is parmesan and roasted parsnip, but carrot and coriander, and winter vegetables have also featured.  This weekend I’m planning a version of Nigel Slaters Dahl and pumpkin soup.

Even if cooking is not your thing, reading about food can be great solace and inspiration.  There are so many wonderfully readable recipe books.  Many of which I will happily work my way through, just as absorbed as if reading a novel.  I think Nigel Slater is the best out there.  Reading through any of his books is an absolute joy.  Nigella Lawson also writes about food in the most tantalising of ways.

Recommended Reading

Greenfeast, autumn, winter by Nigel Slater

Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell -see my review here.

Wintering by Katherine May

I hope you are able to embrace the quiet days of winter, and even in lockdown, see them as a gift rather than a burden.  Enjoy the cold walks, the crisp air.  Watch nature unfurl. Lose yourself in books.  Read recipe books, cook from recipe books. Light candles, be creative and if you possibly can find joy in times of quiet.