It's winter...the thought of it makes me feel deflated, especially after all the excitement involved with Christmas, food, parties, presents and now that 'Christmas' has been packed away, what is left?  Winter.   I hate the winter, yes really I do, because I like being warm you see, but not hot!

My favourite temperature is around 22oC (or about 72oF) as anything above that is almost alien to me living as I do in England, where it only sometimes gets much hotter.   When it does, everyone says that we are having a 'heatwave'.   I heard yesterday that the temperature in parts of Australia was around 40oC - HELP...I can feel my blood boiling already.

At the other end of the scale, we in southern England (but not Scotland, because it tends to be much colder there) we are having a relatively mild winter, thank goodness.   This compares with the last 2 or three years when we had snow practically up to our knees and I was kept out of my car for about ten days!   The temperature rarely got above freezing.    I live in a bungalow and last winter some icicles were hanging down from the gutter to about three inches from the ground.   I remember looking out of my window - yes, I did open the window, thus letting the cold air in - I saw a tiny bird clinging desperately to the end of an icicle and trying to drink from it!   Poor little thing.   I immediately braved the elements and poured some warm water in the bird bath and...within 5 minutes, it had frozen over.

So perhaps you can now see why I dislike the winter and why I dislike very hot weather too.   I always vote for the middle ground you see:  moderation in all things is my motto.

HELP...HELP:  it is now blowing a gale outside and I don't like strong winds either.   I am like the bulbs sitting comfortably underground, and waiting for SPRING when my garden will be alive with bird song, daffodils, bluebells, harebells and all the other bells I can think of and until then, I think I'll go and hibernate...

AHHHHHHHHH...zzz