I'm a winter...

There's no mistaking it, winter stuck its cold nose on my bare leg this morning.

It was dark when I got up, and the windows (yes, THOSE windows) were rattling in outrage at the gusting wind. Rain was rattling on the skylights and dip-dripping through the Famous Unstoppable Leak in the kitchen roof.

Our house sits just off the top of a hill, with big buildings between it and the prevailing wind. The effect of this is to make most wind, even quite serious gales, sound like a train passing by somewhere else. Always a bit distant, safely away. This morning, though the train was still somewhere else, there was a parliament of wind-owls hooting right up by the house, that distinctive whooo-hooooo of whistling wind suggesting the weather was veering.

Or the farmhouse behind us had fallen down.

Who knows?

I've often said here that I struggle to pick a favourite season, but I love the transition between seasons. There's something exciting about the change, the first copper leaves scudding across the road, the first mist of green as the hedgerow buds burst. But I can't help remembering that as colours go, and skin tones, I'm a winter. Happiest in jewel colours and dark, intense shades.

There's definitely something about the extremes of weather in this season that issues a challenge to me. Much as I grump and stumble about in the dark mornings, and glare at the grey, dripping skies, I do love winter.

Bring it on!