Sunday 2nd December

Yesterday (for you), (today for me) was cold.  No, it was bloody freezing actually.  Why is it that the first really cold spell of the winter feels so cold, so bone shatteringly icy.  Is it that we just aren’t used to it?  Is it that we are so molly-coddled in our double-glazed centrally heated homes that the first taste of winter hits us so hard?  Or are we just getting old, and feel it worse with every year that passes.  As a child I can remember the winters, especially 1963, when there was snow on the ground for months, but I remember it as a time of fun, of making huge slides in the playground, of snowball fights that went on for hours, of trying to play football in the snow, and not being able to see the ball, of building a huge snowman on the green outside our house.  The thing I don’t remember was the cold.

There was a sleety rain in the air too today that just made things worse.  I had walked the dogs on the beach at eight – there was no wind and a weak pinky red sun trying to rise and give us some heat – and I was wrapped up and walking briskly; I didn’t seem to mind the cold.  Then we went shopping, and I think that that trudging in and out of shops, in and out of warmth and cold, never really sure if you should unzip the layers or leave them done-up, that makes the cold feel so much worse, and my feet got steadily colder and colder.  We all seem to have a weak spot where cold is concerned.  I don’t mind my face getting cold, or my hands, I seldom resort to gloves, but once my feet start to get cold I feel truly miserable and as long as I have cold feet I can’t seem to shrug the mood, and I get more and more morose.

So, at last the long expected cold weather is upon us, and in a day or two it won’t seem so bad.  We will even be saying ‘I don’t think it’s as cold as yesterday, do you?’   I think that coldness is partly a state of mind, and the more you get used to it the less awful it seems.  How else can people live happily in Canada or Sweden or any of those freezing countries.  Mind you – it is lovely when you get home and out of the cold and sit with a nice cup of tea and look out the window at all the frost and snow.