The Long Month of January
January gets a bad rap, yes it can feel like the longest month of the year, yes its normally dark and cold and grey and damp. Yes too, the fact that payday seems to be aaaages away, bank accounts are empty and everyone has tightened their purse strings to get to the end of the month. Yet after the chaos and glitter of December, this long month of winter is such a relief. Calmness returns, the chance to hunker down with no social demands, sit and knit or read in front of the fire, finish a puzzle, darn those old socks. Away from the madness of advent and its festivities, life slows and you can feel the season turning slowly towards the light. Days gradually lengthen, and the night sky twinkles with stars echoed in the frost of a frozen windscreen. The wolf moon glows silver through the dark stretched hands of leafless trees as the blackbird wakens and sings his song to welcome the dawn. These are marmalade days in the kitchen, the annual tradition of preserving sunshine. Or ...
