The Coming Of Winter

As sad as it is to see Summer fall away, as we recall it's better moments and stare wistfully into frigid grey skies, wishing they were blue and warm once more, and as the melancholy takes hold with the acute comprehension that another long Winter is in the offing, there is still something about the onset of this season that gets my juices flowing. Last night is a good example. I was stood out in the garden, itself not long past flourishing but now insipid with the first frosts and the exhaustive rain. I was splitting wood for the fire (an old, Swedish-forged woodburner with ornate figures of Moose and hunters cast on the sides. I'm not quite sure what they're all up to but it looks like it's all going to end badly for the Moose) when the heavy winds began to blow. Whilst the dog barked at thin air, I stood and stared up at the trees for a while. These same trees had been losing leaves steadily for the last month or so, most choosing to fall down into my garden rather than the field that's perhaps 60 times the size of my little plot which lies to the other side of their bulky trunks and boughs. Watching the last copper tinged, dry leaves hang on to the branches against the thickening gusts was kind of sad, in a way. Perhaps its the neighbourhood in which I live, Wrecker Country, that brought to mind the image of doomed sailors tending perilous rigging in a rabid storm, holding on as a hurricane seeks to pick them off.
I drove down to the sea in the fading light and contemplated the torrid surf from this latest, heavy low pressure system as it tore into North Cornwall. It wasn't cold: just on the edge of cold, like cold was waiting, under-dressed, in the wings.
Love or hate this time of year - drawn out, beset by storms and cold surf, waiting patiently for the snows if we're lucky and the first shy glimpse of Spring - it's something I think I've learnt to appreciate after avoiding it for so long. It's when I celebrate the luxury of a warm indoors and a nice cup of tea. And, of course, a good quality winter wetsuit and this shirt in particular. It's become my Winter armour. C