love January! Yes, Midwinter/Christmas is past, but this month has SO much to offer.

It is the very fact that the winter holidays are over that makes this month so special. Clear rooms, empty of all the seasonal colour and clutter. A clear garden/natural world as vegetation has died away and animals are sheltering, sleeping. A clear diary with no long lists of social commitments. In fact, a gloriously blank canvas on which to indulge in spontaneous activity! What could be better? many of us spent most of November and December bemoaning the fact that we hadn’t enough time… well, now we have!

I like to spend this blessedly still time after Christmas resting, contemplating the year to come and planning my goals and wishes with which I want to fill it.

I love the weather: drab, washed out, dark and wet enough to justify curling up indoors, providing breathing space, or brilliantly clear, sunny and cold with the beauty which frost and snow can mantle the land.

We have removed most of our Midwinter decorations but candles are still favoured and white lights now illuminate jugs of greenery and dark windows.

These days are spent in early spring cleaning, sorting, clearing, bringing into order before the longer, lighter days call us away. Evenings are time for shared discussion, listening to or watching programmes or podcasts, music and games, or quiet reading and the little projects our hands were too busy for in the past few months.

This is also a time for looking forward; for dreaming and decoding how to bring those dreams into being

Think about it. Don’t waste these precious ’empty’ days merely wishing them gone; use them, fill them, enjoy them.

A very happy January to you all!