I really love this time of year.
Daffodils are beginning to pop up all over the place - crocuses, snowdrops, and all the little tiny buds on the trees.
Although its cold outside, its sunny today, and you just know that the warm sunny days are just around the corner. The nights are beginning to get noticeably shorter - yesterday we noticed that we were coming home from my daughter's swimming lesson in daylight for the first time.
I can see why the Chinese chose this time of the year to be New Year - January always seems so cold and miserable and gloomy - it does feel more like the tired and sad tail end of the old thing than the beginning of the new. People talk about new starts on January 1st and all I ever want to do is crawl back under the duvet and sleep off the excesses of Christmas.
Whereas now I can really feel the New Year, I have new life in me, new enthusiasm and new joie de vivre. I'm going to make my New Year's resolutions now and march on merrily into the springtime.
I have no idea what the Year of the Rat is supposed to herald. But I for one have got a really good feeling about 2008.
09/02/08 @ 00:53