I'm OK

 I find myself saying "I'm OK" to myself quite a lot this month.

There's nothing exciting happening, but I'm OK.

The world seems to be becoming more frightening, but I'm OK.

I know there are lots of things I should be doing, but I'm quite happy relaxing and thinking and I'm OK.

Spring is still a few weeks away, but I'm OK

I'm not shrugging off all cares but I have done what I can and I'm OK.

Life isn't perfect, my own life definitely isn't perfect, but I'm OK.

I hope you, too are OK.

Pruinesence

 

Many words from the winter dictionary won't become part of my vocabulary but I think I could make an exception for pruinesence.  It's the beautiful white covering of frost seen on crisp winter days.  A much nicer term than hoar frost, I think you will agree.  It's easy to find lovely cosy words for the winter but beautiful outdoor ones are to be treasured.  

These days I admire the trees at a distance.  All too often the weather is too snarry for me.  Snarry?  Piercingly, bitingly cold.  It's much colder riding on a trundle truck than walking!  I will watch any snow blossoms from a distance.  And that's not just me being poetic - snowflakes were called snow blossoms (at least in written English) before they were called snowflakes.   

Aglidder ground

 

 

I've been looking through The Winter Dictionary again!  I haven't been outside even as far as the wheely bins because the ground is totally aglidder.  Is it slippery where you are too?   

Last night I think it may have blunked as the snow covering is very light.  Heavy snow isn't happening around here, thank goodness! Just a light covering or flindriken.   (Maybe you would call such a light snowfall a greymin, which sounds a very descriptive word.)  I haven't been around to see even a flother (single snowflake) falling as such snow as there is fell overnight. Instead everything is chibbly.  Chibbly?  That's right, crisp and crackly with frost.  I suspect it would creange if I stepped on it but I won't be stepping anywhere outside today so I won't hear the crackling of ice or frozen ground as it breaks under pressure.  

I think there was probably a glottening (partial thaw) yesterday as the sunshine was so lovely yesterday afternoon.   However, there just hasn't been enough for the children to make a hogamadog.

But maybe I am a flindriken myself for delighting in these words for I am a little light headed.  How about you?

 

Baby, it's cold outside!

 

Anyone been barflogging lately?  Not you?  No slapping your arms crosswise against your chest and shoulders to keep warm?  Or maybe you are into cuffing or beating your arms against your sides. 

It’s been distinctly chilly in my part of Lincolnshire but we haven’t had the snow other areas have had.  We had a covering which was gone in a few hours.  It’s been bad enough to clumse me (numb me with cold) if I were foolish enough to step outside.  I’m just not frigostable!  (Possibly you can work out that means unaffected by the cold.)

I’d need to degomble when I came in.  Ha, I’ll bet you didn’t know that word for cleaning the snow and mud off your shoes!  The surprising thing about it is that it is a twenty first century word, probably invented by scientists in the Antarctic.

 You may have gathered that I continue to enjoy the winter dictionary. 

Life's little pleasures

 As I've said many times before, January can be a very tough month for me.  The excitement and socialising of Christmas is over and the first two months of the year tend to be for hunkering down. 

I know I can find this time depressing so I take care to be ready.  I have a SAD lamp which is said to help my body produce more serotonin.  I've found it effective but I also make sure I have easy-to-cook nutritious food in my freezer and I seek out life's little pleasures.

One of the smallest and yet best pleasures is cold water.  I haven't yet found the courage to take cold showers but I do take great care to have very cold water to drink.   I pack my reuseable water bottles with ice and then fill up with water I keep in the fridge.  Water fresh drawn from the tap just isn't as nice.