Wintery musings

I am loving these days of winter. We are keeping warm, rugging up, indulging in warm coats and beanies. I think I am starting to come to terms with winter in Central Victoria. Grey, heavy skies are the norm, sometimes with rain, sometimes not. Quite different to the Canberra winter I grew accustomed to for most of my life. I don't miss the super cold nights of a Canberra winter, but the brilliantly sunny days do more than make up for a chilly night. Still. There is something so beautiful about the heavy skies here, and wearing bright, cheerful, colourful clothes helps. Adding warmth and colour to a grey background. Ask me in late August, I may not be loving the grey skies quite so much. But right now I am.

I have been eating meat. I have been a vegetarian for some years now, and prior to actually making the vegetarian decision, I rarely ate meat anyway. When I was pregnant I started eating some fish again, and have kept that up. But this winter, I have had to start back on some meat. My body needs the nourishment. My reserves have been drained, with pregnancy, having a baby and sustained breastfeeding. I was feeling flat, cold, tired, with a fog in my body and my brain. So I heeded some sound advice (despite having ignored similar advice received earlier) and carefully, mindfully, I have added some meat to my diet. Making chicken stock with organic bones. Slow oven-cooked lamb chops, in tomatoes and red wine. Making sure I get meat with bones, and cooking slowly and gently, to draw out the most nourishment. My body is responding well, and where I thought I would have trouble with eating it, I have not. And the fog in my brain is lifting; I feel more like an earlier version of 'me' that I thought had gone.

Our afternoons always have a walk, a bundled-up-against-the-cold kind of walk. We take the pram, and William sits under a blanket. He holds the dog leads, or munches on an apple, and we head down to the local park. We walk near the lake and feed the ducks, or watch the kids at footy practice, or take a ball and bounce it around. Always William hops out to do some walking of his own, taking the dogs on their leads (he is getting so good at hanging on to them!), choosing the direction and setting off with purpose. Toddlerhood is an amazing thing to watch. It has it's frustrating moments, I am the first to admit that. But the balancing factor is the pure joy and amazement, watching this little person interact with his world. Seeing him engage, making things happen as he thinks they should, being his own independent little person. Exhausting and exhilarating, all in one.

And in the garden, there is an abundance of green. Broccoli heads grow large, weeds shoot up in an instant (or so it seems), broad beans tower over the rainbow chard, and the celery just grows and grows and grows. Bare leaves of the plum tree against these grey skies, reveal birds hopping around on the branches; in summer, we can only hear them but in the stillness of winter, we can see them too. Bulbs have been planted, and we wait and wonder if we will get to see them bloom. House moves are on the cards; our decision to move on from here has a domino effect and we make our house available for others to view, potentially as their new home. My work in the garden now, is just out of love for the process, and hoping that someone else will enjoy seeing flowers come to life in springtime. But I also plant in pots, to make sure I have something to take with me. And a cutting of the beautiful climbing rose, I will definitely take a cutting or three. 

How is winter looking in your neck of the woods? Or summer, if you're in the Northern parts?