quiet paws.

Winter is my favourite time of year. The fashion is wonderful (all those beautiful coats, jackets, boots, gloves and hats), the weather alternates between crisp, crystal clear blue-sky days and perfectly mood-filled rainy, gray-cloud days. It’s the best time of year to warm up with a glass of red wine, to relax in front of an open fire-place, or to snuggle under the covers for just a few extra minutes of comfort.

One thing that I particularly love about winter is observing the contrasts of the season in the garden. I love imagining all the hidden preparations taking place below the soil as bulbs and seeds get themselves busy with preparations for spring. I also love that during a season which most people associate with hibernation, some plants are producing some absolutely beautiful flowers to brighten the wintry world. In lieu of being able to provide each and every one of you with a fresh bunch of flowers, I thought I’d share a few images of the blooms from my (potted) garden. I hope these digital blooms will inspire and awaken your senses as much as they do mine…

…But the fire is so delightful (or at least I’m sure it would be if I actually had a fireplace). Failing that, I’m happy to make do with other ways to keep myself toasty and warm when the weather conspires to leave me frozen and soaked to the core. Aside from keeping the cool air at bay by keeping all the windows and doors of the house firmly closed, and then piling on several layers of warm clothing, I’ve also found that the humble old water bottle packs a serious amount of punch (of the warm variety).

We recently stocked up on a few of the standard (quite ugly) traditional hot water bottles to use throughout the house, which we very inelegantly cover with old pillow cases. However I couldn’t go past one of these cute covered hot water bottles from Peter Alexander (and even better it was 20% off!).

For many, mostly inexplicable reasons I have an obsession with woodland creatures – everything from squirrels, badgers, rabbits and deers. So happily I’ve been able to extend this obsession with my new hot water bottle…snuggly bliss indeed!!