January

Actually Noisette they do in these parts...i've just been thinking and it's quite funny really....at this time of the year peoples 'smiles' are a bit strained and you get the low toned "morning...by 'eck it's a bit nippy" greeting....whereas a couple of months down the line when Spring gets here and things brighten up the difference is obvious ....the tone of the voice raises ,the smiles get bigger and you get the " int it smashing,aren't we lucky" greeting...it's always based around the weather

 

Remember the bit in Crocodile Dundee where Mic introduces himself to a random New Yorker?

 

Funnily enough, I quite like January! Without bleak winter months, I doubt I'd fully appreciate the sunnier, warmer ones: nothing to compare them to, you see.

That's why I like living here: Seasons!

 

Around here, NO,Poeple are so sour faced that 's what comes come to mind



Smile & wave, Smile & wave

 

Sounds to me like you need another hobby: a winter one

 

Ah well, Londoners. What can you do with them, eh?

I normally hate January but it's going OK this year because I love the mild weather. Sure it's rained a lot, but right now there's bright sunshine, my mahonias are glowing a bright yellow and there's a mild, refreshing wind blowing. I also have three holidays/mini breaks planned, and another two lining up.

I usually find February more difficult because winter has been going on for soooo long by then and I'm itching to get going but the weather is still far too poor.

That reminds me, I usually print off a calendar of sunrise/set times for January so I can count the daylength increasing minute by minute. The good news is, even if you hate these dark mornings, today was actually 2 minutes less dark than it was last Friday! The evenings are now lengthening out quite nicely compared with the dreary tea-times of mid-December.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=1317&month=1&year=2014&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1

 

They do round this way, at least in my village. Just don't see so many out and about this time of year apart from a few other hardy dogwalkers.

January hasn't been too bad so far (ok we're only one week in!) There's been a couple of wet days which I spent trying to do some garden planning and ordering lots of seeds. Some of these you can start in January so as soon as they arrive I'll be getting the propagators out . We've had a few sunny days too, including today, so I'll be out there this afternoon digging over a new bed in an area I've just cleared that was an overgrown mess.

I'm sure there's plenty bad weather to come but I'm just making the most of the good days.

 

It's not just you, but the lack of sunlight/Vit D, post Xmas anti-climax, Xmas spending credit card bills, mid-Jan fuel bills (utilities try and get paid before you get your Xmas spending credit card bill) that causes the peak in suicides at this time of year.

 

I absolutely agree about Christmas. I don't really like it for the reasons you give, but I do think that a festival to distract us from the most dismal part of the year is psychologically useful. Imagine how grim late November/early December would seem if winter just went on and on in a dreary, miserable featureless way.

As it is, there's a real sense of having turned a corner, putting Christmas behind us and being able to look forward to the new year. Thank goodness it's over for another 10 months.

I was at the shops at 4.30 today and it wasn't pitch-dark. Progress. And I managed to line-dry a load of washing today, not often that happens in early January.

Must get out the Vit D pills, thanks for the reminder.

 

Here too, LIF. One of the most noticeable differences in daily life is your existence being acknowledged in the street, shops, cafés, Post Office etc. Not just by the staff but by everyone else around! Took me months to get used to saying hello to folks in those situations....
Loli, what you say bears out the north/south divide thing in the UK. We were in the middle. They'd speak to you one day and then ignore you the next

 

January is the drabbest of months , all bed and work , nothing much else to do . They should go straight to February the 1st after new years eve , no one would miss January !

 

Hang on a minute, Harry! My Mum would miss her pension!

 

wasn't that beautiful, i turned it up high & sat back with eyes closed to have a "proper" listen, truly wonderful, it stirs the soul so it does (well it always does mine)

to think its a sound man has been listening to since time immemorial

 

Blimey, that's cheered me right up!

Yeah, I hate this time of year, sooooo dreary