Winter evenings

We've been blessed with an incredibly mild winter here in Britain; we haven't even had frost here in South Wales. We had a delivery of four tons of logs a few months ago, which I think I mentioned a while back, and we've barely used any of them. As January runs into February, I'm hoping that the mildness will remain, and give way to the new life of spring without any rude interjections of unseasonal weather, such as snow in April, as has been known here in recent years. So with that intro, you may be wondering why this post is entitled "Winter evenings". Well we have got the woodburner going some evenings, and over Christmas we decorated the shelves in the middle living room with fairy lights, which we've been reluctant to take down yet, as they aren't Christmassy particularly, but they do bring more cosiness to the room on these dark evenings.

Let me explain about our living rooms. We have a summer living room and a winter living room. This may sound very grand, but let me assure you that it isn't particularly. The front, or summer, living room is at the front of the house and has a large bay window. It is open to the hallway and is quite cool in winter, but it as also South facing therefore gets the sun all afternoon. It is painted in Little Greene's Normandy Grey, which is possibly the most relaxing colour known to man, and is perfect for sitting in in the summer months. The middle living room is entirely in contrast. It is heavily influenced by Marno's South African roots and is painted in Farrow and Ball's Babouche, a beautiful, deep and warm yellow, and furnished with dark wood pieces and a dark sofa, as well as housing the log burner. This room also has the original tiled floor, which enhances it's warmth, though the previous owners didn't take advantage of it - the room was magnolia before we got our hands on it! Its is an incredibly cosy room. Well, what seems to happen every year, quite spontaneously, is that we will have spent the winter being cosy in the middle room, then, all of a sudden, when the evenings are drawing out and warmth is returning to the air, one of us will comment that we've not been in the front living room for ages, and we will find ourselves almost immediately migrating to that room, not to sit in the middle living room for months on end. Then, when the evenings are drawing in and the chill returns, the same thing will happen but the other way round. I think its a great thing actually, as it helps us make good use of the space in the house and not to neglect one room permantly in favour of another. It also means we benefit from the advantages of each room in the seasons they are most pleasurable.

So, I took some photos of the middle room the other night, as I said in my previous post, and I have to show them before they become a little unseasonal. Just have a little break from whatever you're doing, and  feel the warmth and cosiness. I hope you can get a little pleasure from it too.

Mmmmm, lovely :)

We still have a couple of things we want to do in here. We are planning another shelf above the sofa, quite high up, and we want a couple of wall mounted oil lamps to go on the chimney breast, with something in between them. We were joking the other night about me painting an old fashioned portrait of Marno; very dark colours with significant objects strategically placed within the painting. Joking aside, I'd love to do something like that. It would certainly be original, in a slightly paradoxical way.

I've just (literally) finished my Moon hat and its currently blocking, so photos of that to come, and I'm also in the middle of making curtains for the dining room. There are the usual unfinished projects on the go as well, so plenty to be getting on with.

xxx Sam