Friday 2 January 2015

January

Helen Rumbelow in today's Times talks about January and the reason she rather likes it.   Made me think - and I think I agree with her, although if it turns out to be a month of freezing cold weather and snow I shall probably eat my words.

When we were children the days seemed endless - or at least looking back from this advanced age they did.   In the summer holidays we would pack our bike baskets with jam sandwiches, a bottle of water, a fishing net and a jam jar and we would bike off to Sandhill Beck, where the beck had a sandy bottom and lots of little bridges and we would amuse ourselves for hours catching minnows and displaying them in our jam jars, eating our sandwiches, lazing on the grass.  It was just a series of never ending days.

But now the days fly past, maybe helped by the fact that I do so many things at the same time each week - so that Wednesday becomes Exercise Day, Thursday becomes Hair day and so on.

But Rumbelow says that for her January is the only month when 'time slows to a manageable speed'.   I do see her point.   Our years are divided up into the four seasons - and in Winter we look forward desperately to Spring.   January seems to go slowly, then February speeds up like mad as it is such a short month, and then before you know where you are it is Spring and the year just flies by, punctuated on the farm by the various happenings like lambing, the cows going out to grass, the winter sheep going home to their farm and the summer ones with young lambs arriving, the haymaking, the silaging, the hedge cutting and then -wham - it is Christmas again.   So let's welcome January and say thank you that for a few weeks we can take it easy.

Readers of my blog will know that I love rooks, they are my favourite bird.   There is a lovely story in that same paper today saying that rooks are stealing golf balls in mid play.   They are swooping down onto the course and picking up the balls.   One walker found 1500 of them stashed in an old hollow tree.

Have a long, pleasant evening, take it easy and just let everything flow over your head for a few days - let the world slow down.



16 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Well done rooks, I say!
Must make golfing more fun.
Happy January - never quite sure whether I like it or not - but a good reading month.
Chilly here but no snow as yet. Air very crisp and clear and the light almost blindingly bright.

Cloudia said...

Agreed! Let's recover for a day or three. You had a 'beck' we had a 'creek'
Interesting




ALOHA and Happy New Year from Honolulu
ComfortSpiral
<3

Mac n' Janet said...

I've come to like all the winter months more as I grow older. I like staying in, reading, working my puzzles, crafting, playing the piano.
Love that about the rooks!

Heather said...

Clever rooks. It would make a round of golf more interesting for me if I could watch rooks pinching the golf balls.
There seems to be more to do in spring and summer (gardening as well as housework, and everything else) so that would make the days pass more quickly. However, the weeks still seem to fly by whatever the time of year. Keep warm and enjoy yourself.

ChrisJ said...

We have a gathering of rooks by the hundreds most evenings. They fill the trees by the creek and make an enormous noise. I love to go out into the back garden and watch them and listen to their cawing. They make me laugh with their antics. After a while they fly off in small groups to their roosting place towards the setting sun. It is a highlight of my day.

angryparsnip said...

I like January because it is my birth month. It is also, for me, a quiet month to breathe and catch up after all the excitement of December.

cheers, parsnip

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

I see we do not have rooks in America, but that they are somewhat like crows. Crows are very entertaining birds.

Gerry Snape said...

Wonderful advice....slowing down in January.....love those rooks!

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

I just love the Rook story. I have been practicing slowing down my life, stretching time. I know there is some planning involved in all lives, but I try to be where I am in my day/life and not reaching mentally towards the next activity or schedule. If I'm embroidering that is all I do - no T.V. (we don't even own one), no music, just the moment spent embroidering. I try to do the same with my afternoon cup of tea, whether on the deck in warm weather, or indoors in the winter - concentrating on the moment.

Joanne Noragon said...

When my oldest daughter was in her early two's she was at the front door every Wednesday morning with her toys and blankie, waiting to go to a play morning in the apartment common room. I could not understand how she knew it was Wednesday. Other young mothers sorted out our routine--Monday we washed, Tuesday we ironed, Wednesday we went to play morning.

Mary said...

Whew, I think after this weekend I will start to breathe again - January is OK with me too!

Happy New Year - Mary

Cro Magnon said...

I'm now looking forward to a June/July posting from you about minnow fishing at Sandhill Beck. I reckon you'd still be capable of pulling out a jam jar full.

thelma said...

I always let the world flow over me ;) but January is a very cold month as well, gray as well of course. When I was a child on holiday in Wales, we used to 'tickle trout' in the river.

MorningAJ said...

My opinion of January depends entirely on the weather. People who like it obviously never have to face a drive up the icy motorway in the early hours.

The Weaver of Grass said...

I agree about icy drives AJ - I hated it too in my working days - and the awful hold ups on the way home if it dared to snow during the day.
Thanks for calling in.

rachel said...

Just catching up with you, and have to agree about rooks - wonderful birds! Have you read 'Corvus: A Life With Birds' by Esther Woolfson? If not, do try it - so interesting and informative, and makes you love them even more.