Best of winter

I walk the beach in winter with a rugged-up disposition, stooped against the wind, whichever way it comes. Occasionally, when the weather is truly wild, I have the beach to myself. Those winter walks are so wild I even get to wishing I weighed more to provide better ballast, which is normally the very last thing I want. I can recommend it though. On your own the beach seems an intimate place of whispered memories, although the beach is of course made for sharing. Nature's great democracy, is the beach.  I mustn't wallow in this imagined intimacy too much.

Thanks Mum (and the possums)!

I cannot say enough in favour of my new possum jumper! My mother, nearly ninety years no less knitted it last year. And not sheep's wool but a possum, a red possum at that. A very snug-in-winter red possum, indeed. It's the jumper's first winter too, after America last December. First NZ winter. It was also Mum's first possum-wool knit. Not marketed in Australia where Mum lives, of course, possums being Aussie natives, her mates took great interest in her knitting project, which went on for best part of a year.

Winter has well and truly arrived here in NZ, officially and unofficially. Though a little early, considering it's only the first week of June, let's love winter anyway. The best of winter? Let me make a list:

Wool

Winter sheets and pillowcases

Winter nights in bed

Winter weekend mornings in bed

Bed in the rain

Bed

There you have it: the best of winter. There is also the food, of course, such as home-baked goods that I am much more inclined to make in the winter than the summer. There's home fires. We have two open fireplaces here, though we hardly need two at once. The second fire in the front room goes on in June-July, particularly when Mum comes to stay. 

We are lucky in NZ with the seasons: we really get them. Being a narrow island we also get very changeable weather and often four seasons in one day. But our summer this year was hot and dry, then our autumn was warm-cool and wet, then winter is shaping up wet, dry, and cold - though no snow - and summer will no doubt return with the dryer heat. 

Sometimes it doesn't follow suit. With Christmas being smack bang in the middle of summer here, it is usually hot and beachy. But one year it was so cold the fireplace was called for. That was memorable. 

We don't snow here although once or twice have done, though the lower half of the country snows to overflows every winter.

Sacha