November, November
Be off on your way. November really is sorriest of months, right up there with February. It has little to redeem it. Every year I try to face November with a more positive outlook but it isn't long before those short grey days work on my cheer.
This year I was baking my way through it with reasonable happiness but last weeks cold (and its univited friend, 'the cough') soon had me thinking meanly of November. This week I am a still a little croakier than I would like but I can see an end in sight.
We have a birthday at the end of this week, Tilly will be seven years old and in a fit of insanity it seems we have invited all the girls from her class (they surely won't all come, will they?) As a result this week will be cutting a swathe through November's dullness, a swathe of pink. Rather unhelpfully I have decided to make the party favours myself. As I sat surrounded by felt and glue yesterday this seemed somewhat daunting but today as the rain batters the windows and the sky grows darker by the minute I can think of few things that would be more fun.
Shades of pink and little pockets of Liberty Lawn prints can surely push aside the dreariest of weather. The kitchen is warm and something sweet and lemony bakes in the oven. Suddenly I can think of so much that is good about November. The acceptance that Autumn is fast becoming winter and the thought of winter gives me so much to be happy about. I have a warm, cosy house, a stack of logs outside and winter is just made for spending time in a cosy kitchen. One need make no apolgies for repeatedly putting butter on the shopping list as winter goes hand in hand with the very best sort of things to come out of a kitchen. Hot, peppery soups and warm baked bread. Steaming, sweetened cocoa with spiced Norwegian buns. Pots of tea accompany sticky ginger cake or sharp, lemon drenched sponge. Walks through new landscapes, trees stripped back, cold easterly winds on your face and home to a mound of hot buttered toast. These are the things November promises, the things to be grateful for.
Be off on your way. November really is sorriest of months, right up there with February. It has little to redeem it. Every year I try to face November with a more positive outlook but it isn't long before those short grey days work on my cheer.
This year I was baking my way through it with reasonable happiness but last weeks cold (and its univited friend, 'the cough') soon had me thinking meanly of November. This week I am a still a little croakier than I would like but I can see an end in sight.
We have a birthday at the end of this week, Tilly will be seven years old and in a fit of insanity it seems we have invited all the girls from her class (they surely won't all come, will they?) As a result this week will be cutting a swathe through November's dullness, a swathe of pink. Rather unhelpfully I have decided to make the party favours myself. As I sat surrounded by felt and glue yesterday this seemed somewhat daunting but today as the rain batters the windows and the sky grows darker by the minute I can think of few things that would be more fun.
Shades of pink and little pockets of Liberty Lawn prints can surely push aside the dreariest of weather. The kitchen is warm and something sweet and lemony bakes in the oven. Suddenly I can think of so much that is good about November. The acceptance that Autumn is fast becoming winter and the thought of winter gives me so much to be happy about. I have a warm, cosy house, a stack of logs outside and winter is just made for spending time in a cosy kitchen. One need make no apolgies for repeatedly putting butter on the shopping list as winter goes hand in hand with the very best sort of things to come out of a kitchen. Hot, peppery soups and warm baked bread. Steaming, sweetened cocoa with spiced Norwegian buns. Pots of tea accompany sticky ginger cake or sharp, lemon drenched sponge. Walks through new landscapes, trees stripped back, cold easterly winds on your face and home to a mound of hot buttered toast. These are the things November promises, the things to be grateful for.
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