23 Jul 2013

dreams of spring


Reading home decorating and gardening magazines on cold, dark winter evenings can be equal parts inspiring and frustrating (reading it's-summer-over-here English ones even more so). I look up and about, and want to create, say, a pearly feature wall in my bedroom, or paint all the skirting boards white.

But it seems pointless - the painting, especially - when it's too cold to open any windows; I'd be inhaling that fresh paint smell in my sleep for weeks.

As I flip thru the glossy, colourful pages, I am seized by a compulsion to makeover, upgrade my domestic life. I dig out two favourite pages of English garden sheds, looking prim and pristine and pretty; a dirty blunnie would never have darkened their doorsteps. Then I think about another pic I used to have taped up somewhere, and I mentally install big pots of colour right near the back door, that I can see from where I stand at the kitchen bench; hot pink and red pelargoniums, perhaps.

Instead, I channel my wistful dreams into sorting thru the linen press and sweeping the browned, curled-up leaves from the driveway. I transplant self-seeded larkspurs from the vegie garden into the cold, unpromising soil of the flower beds up the front.

Instead of repainting walls white, I take down art prints, hoping to let as much of the weak, watery sunlight bounce around as possible.

I can barely yet gather a handful of jonquils from the garden to bring their perfumed promise of spring breathing into the house. So, instead, I rely on a cheeky stash of imposters to at least bring colour to each room, if not life.

Gloomy days plod by, monotonously; dreary routine fills winter, not the bright spontaneity and doing of summer. After work, after chores, reading magazines and looking ahead.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous24 July, 2013

    Hey you, this is very well written and gives us a wonderful insight into your thoughts. We’re inching closer to spring every day now. So just like your red tin says “keep calm and carry on”

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    1. ha, thankyou. yes, it can sometime be a struggle in a hobart winter to remain positive and carry on!

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  2. I have to say, I really like winter. Without a season to hibernate on the couch and plan wondrous schemes for summer, I think I'd just drop from exhaustion. A whole season where you can't garden because it's too cold and wet? Priceless.

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    1. I know Jo, I have to think of it that way too, as a rest! I like *sunny* winter days. Not gloomy ones. Unless I am home on the couch with cake and pots of tea and a good movie...

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  3. Whilst I currently have a part of my body on the air con vent at work trying to shift off some of the heat from our humid London summer, I do understand the winter melancholy of drab days. Our last winter seemed to last forever and it feels like it seeps into your bones. It all gets forgotten on that first day of spring though :)

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    1. Hi Hannah. Seeing some more of my yellow jonquils finally bursting out this morning was cherring. Maybe i will get a bunch for the house, albeit a small one, this weekend!
      PS are you going crazy for baby cambridge?!

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  4. Hi E...I love the pics. House and garden magazines are my favourites.

    I understand how you feel, winters can seem like a hibernation and it can be very frustrating for creative cooks and gardeners.

    Yesterday I set myself a winter project to design a tranquil and rustic space in front of my hut. I fashioned my trees and shrubs and also cleared all the debris from the storms in preparation for the spring.

    On the cold, dismal nights I make sure I have lamps, tea light candles, a scented oil burner in place of flowers and best of all...my doona and couch. Oh, and I mustn't forget the hoard of goodies!



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    1. hello SB. if by goodies you mean chocolate... yes that helps get thru a cold night! perversely, so does good vanilla ice cream.
      hopefully this weekend will see some fine weather, and i am going to tidy my shed. i think that too is a good winter project, ahead of spring!

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