No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon –
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! –
November!
by Thomas Hood
I have always felt this is far too negative a view of November and being a lover of our British seasons here is my take on a few of the positives for the month.
Around first week of October I begin to really look forward to the clocks going back. The shorter days are now welcome and dark evenings put pay to spring and summer’s relentless full steam ahead, forward going busy-ness. The pace of life slows to match the season and there is time to enjoy the little things. Being cosy in the evening by the fire, no one is fed up with getting the wood in yet! Time for a hobby, to read for pleasure rather than just work stuff, homemade soups, walks in the mist, the leaves falling in the woods, and the smell of autumn. Turning off the TV and electric light to use an oil lamp instead, to chat by the fire while sharing a specially saved beer. Hurray for this ‘recharge your batteries’ time. None of this happens in summer and Christmas is still some way off!
But what I didn’t know until last week was that the Danes have a word for this – ‘hygge’.
Helen Russell wrote in the Weekend section of the Sat Telegraph 24th Oct explaining exactly what hygge is for the Danes.
