I hope everyone enjoyed their festive break. I certainly did and I am still to enjoy a few days yet.
My dream of a white Christmas came good yesterday and for two hours the snow fell in a frenzy and blanketed the countryside with a festive dusting.
With the wood burner roaring, a hearty cooked breakfast and a cup of steaming tea, we all settled down to watch Mama Mia.
It has been a fantastic family holiday with long leisurely walks in the peaceful countryside around our home.
On Christmas day, we decided to dispense with turkey and go with roast beef. We put an order in at our local butcher in Monflanquin for collection Christmas Eve. That in itself is nothing unusual but the butcher gave us the choice of collection on Christmas Day.
Apparently, it is traditional for boulangerie and the boucherie to open on Christmas morning.
On the butcher's advice, we cooked the meat for twenty five minutes in the hottest oven we could manage. I do not think I have ever had a better piece of beef. All washed down with a bottle of 2006 Chevalier de Brot Pecharmant Bergerac red wine.
The rest was polished off with a breast of turkey and bubble and squeak and Christmas chutney on Boxing Day evening washed down with a not so local rosé.
As I look out of the door it gives me the shivers. Rather too cold for gardening but perhaps a bit of pruning or heavy work that keeps you warm.
A lot of people will be feeling the blues at this time of year for a variety of reasons. SAD - or Seasonal Affective Disorder - is a condition that is suffered by people who lack natural light during the winter months. Coupled with short days, gloomy weather and perhaps too much time in dark offices, SAD leads to varying degrees of depression.
Perhaps one of the most familiar cases to the gardening fraternity is Monty Don. Monty writes in the Times about how he resents this time of year because every winter he slides "with banal predictability into a reductive funnel that is self-obsessed, irritable, unproductive and unhappy."
One point I would disagree with in Monty's piece is "It is also fun - or should be if you are doing it right - and any keen gardener sees time outside as a treat rather than a chore."
My experience tells me that many gardeners fight a losing battle with untamed gardens or perhaps gardens that take more resources than they posses. There is a tremendous stress that goes with this and I have seen it lead to depression.
What about you - do you love the winter or resent it? Is there any particular routing that allows you to avoid the blues?
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