Winter Dreaming

Now that Winter Solstice and Yule are gone I have sailed gratefully into the quiet backwaters of January. It's a month that many people dislike but for me it is a time of winter dreaming, a whole year lies ahead and in January it is full of infinite possibilties.



There are so many ancient crafts and skills that I would like to master, natural dyeing for instance. How wonderful to gather plants, leaves, bark or berries from your garden or the surrounding countryside and then use them to produce yarns in wonderful rich,earthy colours. I know someone locally who would teach me or....



...there is a course available at the Weald and Downland Museum - a place I never tire of visiting.



Then there is basket making, I've always loved baskets and the thought of learning to make my own really appeals to me. Plenty of courses around so that's another possibility...


....and if I made my own baskets I could use them to collect wild fruits and herbs so maybe a course on wild foods so that I can identify more of them. I know quite a few but there are a great many others that I know by name but couldn't safely identify if they were growing wild.


Then, of course, there is spinning - my little kit bought at Bakewell Show last summer is still in its brown paper carrier! I haven't been brave enough to have a go yet but the young lady who was demonstrating spinning would give me lessons.



She lives in Edale, I'm sure that you can see why my winter dreaming includes visiting this lovely part of the Peak District again........


........and saying hello to my friends who provide the wool for all this spinning and dyeing.



January is a time for dreaming of all the wonderful places I might visit or revisit such as West Kennet Long Barrow which is a place that I find very special.



Hopefully my dream of visiting Maiden Castle in Dorset will become a reality this year, Dorset is a county I've never visited even though I know that it's full of wonderful ancient places and beautiful gardens like Snape Cottage and Chiff Chaffs - these two I've only seen on photographs and garden videos but I've long wanted to visit them.


My January dreams take me further afield too, I hope one day to return to South Africa so that I can see wonderful sights like this again.


Bourke's Luck Potholes in Blyde River Canyon, a fantastically beautiful area near to White River where my son and DIL lived for three years. Actually my chances of seeing it again are pretty good as my son and daughter-in-law plan to move back there within the next 12 months so maybe in 2010.....



There are dreams of spring flowers....



....borders filling with all my old friends and maybe some new ones too...



....and just sitting in the warm sunshine of an early summer's day.