Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” (Dame Edith Sitwell)

It never fails to intrigue me how Summer seems to go in a heartbeat: every year we have outrageous heat seemingly worse for being yet another month of it. Then the rain comes for a day or two and we welcome the moisture; it ends and suddenly Autumn is knocking on the door. The days are still hot and sunny but the mornings and evenings though have a freshness and chill that weren't here last week. Now I'm looking at bringing wood from the shed ready for the Winter fires.

Reading at the quote from Edith Sitwell (an eccentric and  poetess), some thoughts occur to me. Few - if any -even know who she was and secondly probably don't care. To say she was an eccentric is a term that is rarely used today and even less understood. Eccentricity is as much about being an individual and being happy with oneself; one look at a picture of her shows she had little regard for 'fitting in'.

http://strangeflowers.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/a-huge-old-baby-vulture/

She chose her own way of life and who she chose to be around. Eccentricity in people is what adds colour to our lives I believe, especially in an age where trivia appears to be paramount, be it docu-drama TV shows or mind-numbing marketing from somebody trying to sell us things we don't need. Or how some prefer to communicate by Twitter or Facebook and not face-to-face. I miss larger-than-life people although of course they still exist - I just need to find them. My mind thrives on stimulation and I don't need Facebook to connect with my friends.

 Edit Sitwell's phrase encapsulates my thinking the last few days. I'm still harvesting food from the garden and to be honest up until now it's a chore. I know it's of value and it will be good to have during Winter but it's hard work. When I worked in the city my days were determined by my work. Winter was an irritation due to the weather; Summer was lost sitting inside an air-conditioned office.

Now things are different and I welcome them. Seeing this phrase from Edith Sitwell fits well with me. My everyday life now is increasingly determined very much by the Seasons. I plant, I water, I tend; I create I harvest and I prepare for Winter and as I preserve or freeze food I think of the colder days ahead and imagine the wood fire that keeps me warm as I look at the wild weather outside. I can drive to the beach at a moment's notice and revel in clear water and few if anyone is there as well.

I watch the new plants I've bought hoping they will last until the next big rains come as this means they will survive and soon the garden will develop and grow as all gardens should. It's Nature's way. and like Nature and all things that grow I will hibernate this Winter until the warmth comes again creates a new cycle of activity. Friends will visit during Winter and embrace to calming comfort and warmth this home offers. I love it.