Don’t let January get you down - I have a solution

An excuse to put more decorations up, and biscuits for breakfast

Imbolc: the quickening of the year

January is a cold old month

After the relentless push of Christmas and then the inevitable slump as our less-distracted minds look outside, it’s easy to get a bit down in the dumps about this greyest time of year.

Tupperware skies taunt us; we know what hovers just above those really annoying clouds. So we grumble and wait for the days to get longer. And bit by bit, they do.

The Wheel of the Year - the ancient cycle of seasonal celebrations - is starting to make itself felt. As the dark days of winter drag on and on and on, doesn’t it feel a bit like the need for light, warmth, and friends is growing stronger and stronger?

January often brings introspection, but there’s hope in the promise of renewal: Imbolc is the Gaelic word for this slow moment between the winter and spring equinoxes. As the relentless cold makes us wonder for a moment whether it will ever end, we begin to find signs here and there that all is not quite as hopeless as it may sometimes seem, and that everything goes on. Frost is cold, but it will get warm again. It’s dark, but every day we’re given just a precious minute more of light. The dawn chorus grows just a little louder, and, as if by magic - for it really does seem like magic - out come the bravest shoots and tips of buds, sensing with a wisdom beyond ours that it’s THAT time.

Having had a major sulk about taking down the Christmas decorations, and with the amaryllis still pumping out more flowers, I decided this year that decorations are the way to get through January. After all, I reasoned, the lights in Italy stay up until Carnival is over at the end of February. And so, I thought, why shouldn't I do something similar?