PART ONE

Tuesday 21st January 2025

I love January!  This has never happened before. January is the long slog, yeah? The Blue Monday, bleak, broken resolutions, everyone has flu month.  Usually, I am in rough compliance with these societal tropes about January.  But this year, this year, I’ve loved everything about her.  Our brave, bold, first month of the year.  This year I honour her.

The first day of January was grey, wet, windy and in a dreadful mood.  But she slightly cheered late afternoon, so we saw last light in the woods with hot chocolate and monster trucks and puddles. Then came the snow a couple of days later.  Enough to make a snowman with a beautiful carrot nose.  Then, the deep freeze, which lasted a week and preserved our snowman in his perfect collapse (although someone or something ate his nose).  The freeze came with beautiful sunrises.  The best thing about January sunrises is that you can do the school run and still catch the sunrise afterwards.  8.45 is such a civilised time of day for a sunrise.  The first Tuesday in January, I caught the end of the sunrise down by the Tweed.  It was heaven on earth.  The light! Oh, January’s light.  Long shadows, low mist, fiery orange glow, daytime moons. Filigree skeletons of hogweed and cobwebs, frosty and sparkling in the sun.

It has felt like the birds have been overjoyed in the sunshine this January.  Singing and moving and filling the hedges and trees with life.  I’ve heard woodpeckers drumming and bullfinches whistling and jays croaking and it all feels so vibrant and alive.  Is January always like this?

For me, January comes with a sense of relief.  September through to December are always incredibly busy.  January is my month to go on walks with my sketchbook, to draw at the table for hours, to plan and to dream (and also to do all the admin I haven’t done for months: European regulations, barcodes and VAT are my topics this January. I maybe don’t love *everything* about January). Here’s to the cold and boring months for they bring space, time at home, cancelled plans, evenings on the sofa watching telly (the Traitors, am I right?). January is soup, leftover Christmas cake, potatoes, pots of tea.  We’re like the bulbs, taking our time, ready to push through when the moment is right.  

But you know what, if January has been the usual slushy, muddy, when-is-payday, chest infection, gloom-fest for you, that’s ok, too.  I’m sorry it has been rough.  Stop and look at a snowdrop (always helpful), start buying the Easter choccies, remember pancake day is coming, and go back to bed.  Maybe next year, January will turn her face to shine upon you.  Like a true goddess, she bestows favour and takes it away again with a flick of her hand and a wiggle of her eyebrow.

PART TWO

Monday 27th January

An update: 

Since I wrote Part One a week ago, we’ve had colds, a sickness thing and Piglet caught chicken pox (or chicken bugs as we call it in our household).  There’s been a Red Alert for wind from Storm Eowyn.  That Red Alert was delivered via a horrible honking government-issued message at 5am: my phone was under my pillow, I was so confused.  January has removed her favour and turned her ire on us. 

Storm Day was actually pretty fun.  We panic-made waffles and filled up flasks of hot water in case the power went off.  The kids insisted on putting on their wellies and running out into the 80mph gusts to play in the puddles.  Trix didn’t last long, but Piglet was the definition of exhilarated.  Bright eyes, pink cheeks.  He said the wind wouldn’t let him breathe! A good distraction from the itchy chicken bugs spots.  I think “that time Piglet got chicken bugs and it was Red Alert windy” will be one of those treasured family memories.   

We’ve been out surveying the aftermath of Storm Eowyn.  I think we got off lightly here – some trees down, but mostly young ones.  I’ve checked all my most treasured old beauties in the woods and they are all still standing, unphased, maybe a branch down here and there.  Sending love to anyone who is having to deal with proper damage from the winds.

January has flexed her muscles, shown us who is boss. The awesome power of nature.