This Time of Year

When I was young, this time of the year was one of the lowest in the calendar for me. My most favourite time, Christmas, was over and finished. All the excitement and build-up was all gone. I can remember crying at the end of Christmas Day - it was such a big "down".

Not only that but school was looming, back to the grindstone and exams, tests and all sorts of nasty things to come in the next few months. Add to this the dark, damp, cold winter days and the long walk to and from school each and every day - not a very happy time of the year.

Any New Year resolutions made were quickly forgotten. The only light on the horizon was......Easter! All those lovely chocolate eggs to look forward to and of course the days starting to lengthen and the temperature starting to rise a little.

The wheel of the year turns slowly as a youngster. Nowadays it turns so fast I can hardly keep up with it!

Happy Days

September already. Where has the summer gone? I seem to have had a non-summer this year. We had our holiday at Easter - to Malta, which was lovely and this was just as well because shortly after we came back my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. He had an operation to remove a tumour and then had to start a course of chemotherapy. He was also found to have TB and that's all on top of COPD. And that's where our summer has gone. Back and forth to various hospitals for test and treatments. I'm not complaining and the children haven't complained either. They are at the stage where they do their own thing and create their own entertainment.
I like the changes of seasons and I particularly like this one - Summer into Autumn. I love the Autumn colours and the feeling of the garden settling down into its Winter rest. This doesn't mean an end to gardening though. Autumn is as busy a month as any other. Lots of trees around us mean plenty of leaves to be cleared. There are Spring bulbs to plant, shrubs to be pruned, tender plants to be moved and wrapped up for the Winter months, the grass still needs cutting, final trims to the hedges, perennials to be divided and replanted, borders to be weeded and mulched - the list goes on and on.
I also look forward to Christmas - one of my favourite times of the year. I'm not sure why - I just love everything about it. Probably my inner child takes over at this time of year. I actually find myself getting really excited about present opening! I don't get quite as excited about buying and wrapping the presents but I feel this is getting easier now that the children are getting older. They know what they want usually months in advance. I also enjoy indulging in things that I generally deny myself at other times of the year - Cadbury's Roses, Turkish Delight and Fudge are several things that spring to mind.
The sign of Virgo - the industrious one - prepares us for the start of a new school term and year, not something that I enjoyed when young. "The best days of your life" we are constantly told by our elders. Right and wrong, I feel, depends on the child and the school. The best times of my childhood was when I wasn't at school - the summer holidays were always enjoyed. Especially the parts when I stayed with my nan and grandad in the country - a completely different way of life. Easier in some ways and not so easy in others but much, much simpler and one I often look back upon with great fondness. I would so love to be able to live those days all over again. Happy days.