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winter

What You Need To Enjoy A Brisk Winter Night Outside

This is a collaborative post

When the winter chill comes rushing over the landscape, our first thought is to bunker down inside our homes. In fact, we make preparations for the winter well in advance or at least, we should. It’s because winter is very harsh on homes, the roofing can become loose, leaks can spring into the home, drains can get blocked, the gutters can overfill and leave standing water etc. So it would appear that the only way to enjoy winter is to not enjoy it. Well, if you would like to spend some time in your garden during this time of the year, then why shouldn’t you? The only things holding you back are the darkness of shorter light hours and the cold temperatures. During the winter, it’s the best time to enjoy the night sky whereby the stars and the moon can be observed easily, the fog and mist can be observed.

Blanket for a Winter night outside

Image by moon angel

Throw it on

First off, even before you venture outside into the frosty weather buy yourself a good throw. It’s kind of like blanket buts it’s thicker and larger, made out of wool normally. This kind of clothing is to be thrown onto yourself, covering your from your chin all the way down to your toes. You’ll be sitting or lying down so you need it to be made from a high-quality fabric which normally leans itself into woven wool.

Rocking away

Of all the chairs for the outdoors one has stood the test of time. The rocking chair has gone through a modern transformation so that it can actually be incorporated into a chair design that is akin to many lounge chairs. It can be long and low, yet still have the ability to gently rock back and forth. Made out of a mixture of wood, metal, plastic and fabrics, you can get any kind of style chair you would like in this regard. Wood and metal will get bitterly cold during the winter. Plastic will too, but not as much so you may wish to buy a chair that is wicker and lay a throw over it and one more over yourself when you’re outside.

fire in a chiminea

Source Sean Loyless

Flickering flames

What could possibly be better during the wintertime when you’re outdoors than a real fire? Outdoor Heating such as a chiminea made from terracotta or clay is going to provide you with an awesome fire. It comes with a stand, so you can have it off the ground where the heat will simply be wasted or a large part of it will since you’re going to be sitting higher. It’s also small so it’s not going to cause you to change your garden layout or move things around as it works well in a small garden too. The prices for the quality and design vary, but you can expect to buy an affordable chiminea for around £50-60 but the high-quality versions will be easily above £250.

The flickering flame provides you with heat and a hypnotic dance, the thick woollen throws keeping your body temperature normal and a gentle rocking chair putting you at ease. What more could you want to enjoy the winter nights outdoors in your own garden?

Where’s the snow?

For Christmas 2013 I bought Aiden, Kaycee, and Ella a sledge each. They still have the stickers on because we’ve HAD. NO. SNOW.

No Snow

It’s not fair! I’m getting a bit fed up with our snowless Christmases now! I used to LOVE going down The Flat (someone’s idea of a joke name for a big hill I used to walk up to get to school every morning!) on a sledge and would spend hours playing with my friends.

Ok, so snowless Christmas isn’t strictly true, it snowed quite heavily on Boxing day last year, but it was gone by the next day and anyway, it was Boxing day which meant Christmas had done and as far as I was concerned, it could have stayed away!

Snow Angels

Ella keeps asking when it’s going to snow because she wants to go out and make snow angels. She also wants to build snowmen and have snowball fights with Kaycee and Aiden. I want them to pack the snow down tight on the path and make a wonderful ice slide like we used to do in the school playground then subsequently get told off for making the playground ‘dangerous’!

The talk of sledging in December is almost as prevalent as the talk of getting the paddling pool out is in the summer! If I let them, the girls would spend all day swimming in the pool; they don’t even care when it rains!

It seems to be every day that someone mentions the snow and quite frankly, I think I’d rather it still be summer because getting some sun in the summer is more likely than getting some snow in the winter!

Snow in 2012
Winter 2012 – Wish it would snow like this again!

Winter’s here!

I had to share some photos of the frost I saw when I went out today. It might be freezing out there but the way the frost has covered the trees and plants in lovely white spikes really fascinated me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my winter cave!

I’ve noticed a definite change in me since winter arrived; I usually like rooms to be very bright and it’s not uncommon for me to have the light on all day in the hope it’ll give just that little bit extra brightness to the room.
However, since winter came on the scene, I’ve hardly switched the big light on at all, instead, opting for the two lamps and the fake orange glow from the fake fire! It’s cosy and gives the impression of warmth without actually having the heat on. The bright light from the kitchen invades the cosiness of my winter cave and I’m tempted to close the door and the curtains so I can shut the world out for a short while.

We switch the lamps on in the morning and they then stay on all day until bedtime. I love the soft glow from them and find myself nice and relaxed, so much so that if there wasn’t a chill in the air right now, I could happily drift off to sleep for a doze!
I think it’s time to get the woolly cardi out; it’s big and long and so warm it feels like it’s wrapping you up in a snugly hug. It only comes out at this time of year and I’ve had it for about 4 years. It’s kind of becoming one of my winter/Christmas traditions that are just for me. When it’s cold enough to need my big cardi it signals winter then Christmas is on the way and seeing as, ‘it’s the most wonderful time of the year’ (bet you sang that in your head didn’t you? I know I did!!) it makes my heart happy 😀

I can’t wait to get the Christmas decorations up. I’m planning on putting lights on the mantel, on the tree and in the window and I’m never more at peace than when sitting in a darkened room with only the twinkle of the  beautiful fairy lights.
Only 17 more days to go till the tree goes up 🙂 We usually put the decorations up on the first Saturday of December but because the first Saturday is the 1st of December and that’s a little too early for me, we’ve decided to put them up on the 8th.

When do you put your decorations up? Do you do the whole shebang with garlands and tinsel everywhere or do you go for a more sophisticated, ‘less is more’ look?

Flashback Friday

I read a post about Autumn earlier this week and I started getting excited about its arrival and also that of Christmas 🙂 I love autumn and winter. I don’t like being cold but I do love wearing my fur-lined boot slippers and big snuggly cardigan.
When they come out of storage, I start to feel Christmasey! It won’t be long now, my feet are a little chilly and I may just have to get the throw from the back of the chair to cover them up for a bit.
I came across this photo while looking for something else and thought it would be the perfect photo for my Flashback Friday post.

This was taken in January this year so not too far back but I remember going into the garden and seeing this stunning view. I just had to go back and get my camera. Looking at this photo, I can feel the freezing cold air on my face, feel the pain as it took my breath away if I tried to breathe in too deeply.
I wrapped my cardi tighter round my body and just stood for a moment, taking it all in.
We’d had quite heavy snow in December and I got great pictures but even the beauty of the snow (which just happens to be my favourite weather ever!) didn’t compare to the way the trees looked on that day.

I can’t wait for winter/snow/Christmas and I’m starting to get a little excited thinking about it!
Let’s hope (although I know my husband and Father in law won’t agree….mind you, they do have to drive in it while I don’t!) we have lots of snow this Christmas and more opportunities to take photos like these 🙂
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