Are you feeling a bit tense and irritable?  Did you just unfriend someone who annoyed you? Are you reconsidering your job, your marriage, your hair style?  Are you questioning every life choice you have ever made?

Do not act on your impulses at this time of the year. Leave your hair as it is. Changing  your circumstances is not going to change the weather.  Most likely you are just going a little ‘wintery’ . It is a saying I just made it up.

As January creeps  inexorably into February we begin to twitch and give hard stares to strangers.

Now let’s just say this, any mood swings or feelings of cramped irritation at the restraints that are part of your life , they all count as ‘first world problems’. Let’s get that out of the way right now.

It is stressful to have debt, it is stressful to be unemployed or badly employed, it is a drag that you can”t afford a holiday, or even a dinner out, but in the long run we all have good food and warm shelter and it is a fair bet that we always will have  these comforts.

But still, there is a harsh quality to a freezing January day that tests any good humor.

When I find myself standing at the window staring at the icy sea, and wondering whether I should make really chocolatey brownies, I know it is almost February.  When I find myself  thinking fondly of an evening glass of wine, in middle of the afternoon, I know the days are cold and short.

Today the sun crept up over the hoary frozen vista like a warning.  ‘Appreciate the day, Godammit’, said the Sun. I heard it distinctly. Last night the full moon lit up the frozen slippery garden and peeked in the windows, and it sang a sweet melancholy song,  ‘Sleep peacefully, all bundled up in warm blankets.  Be a happy beast, hibernate when you can’.

I know what I have to do this coming month.  The first thing is buy a big box of wine. The second is invest in good chocolate. The third is plan some dinner parties; have people over, make food, open my house.

And of course, feed the birds and critters, walk in the woods and, very important, take vitamin D and a massive stinking Vitamin B complex.