One of my New Year resolutions was to do more creative things.  I think I have met that challenge, albeit rather mundanely this month, by darning several pairs of socks.  I had bought the materials to do this some time ago but had left them languishing in a drawer.  I got them out again and followed a YouTube video showing me how to bring a bunch of socks back to life.  I admit that the holes were quite small and the finished products are not works of art, but I was proud of myself for doing it rather than just throwing the socks away and buying new ones.

^{Not Beautiful But Newly Functional}

My wife Jane has also been darning and even went on a workshop to facilitate more complex darning processes than I had attempted. Her main output was a repaired soft toy – called ‘Robert’ apparently – that my late mother had knitted for our Middle Son (MS) and which he still remembers adoring as a small child. MS and his fiancé are expecting a baby in March and, touchingly, MS wanted the baby to have a smartened up ‘Robert’ for his or her nursery. As with my socks, the repairs are, fashionably I’m told, very visible. Hopefully, both socks and ‘Robert’ will have a new lease of life.

Most of my other New Year Resolutions have started well. I’ve been walking a lot, watching my weight and my alcohol intake, and have countered my fear of average, lukewarm coffee by going to a cafe with Jane when she has requested (only once so far). I’ve reduced my intake of the miserable world news a bit. I’ve also remembered to do my back exercises on most days and although they are limited, they are also pain free. While doing them, I have enjoyed remembering that these exercises weren’t really possible a year ago after I put my back out with an unexpected, untimely and big sneeze; that’s good progress.

Only the gardening resolution is untouched but, so far in January, the weather has been either too cold and frosty (lovely to walk in), too windy or too rainy.  Climate chaos certainly seems to be producing very varied winter weather and convenient excuses not to get out working in the garden.

^{Frosty Mornings On The Way Into Town}

In the last two or three weeks, there has been plenty of cloudless sky in between the storms.  Jane and I had a lovely walk through some woods on the other side of the Stroud Five Valleys from our home.  Lack of parking places forced us to alter our plans slightly but it is always rewarding to find new places to stroll through and the Five Valleys are blessed with a vast network of well-tended footpaths.

I have revisited some of the long walks around our village for the first time for months.  I’ve loved these sunny walks, their views and their solitariness and the time they give me to think (but not about very much).  The frozen ground meant there were no worries about the mud and the mix of bright sun and deep frost everywhere has been spectacular at times.

Some of the recent winter sunrises have been spectacular too. 

Spring is on its way.  I often find upcoming February is the toughest month to negotiate; I get impatient for the ever longer days and daunted by the amount of work there is to do to prepare the garden for planting.  Darn it, perhaps I should have focused a little less on mending socks in recent days, and a little more on gardening so as to have got ahead of tasks on the vegetable patch and in the field.  Even in retirement, time is too short.