Hibernation projects

READ. WATCH. SORT.

Hibernation projects. They’re the kind of projects you probably wouldn’t tackle in summer because they lend themselves to long, dark winter nights, to a slowed pace of life, to snuggling indoors and to a less energetic but more contemplative season. Here are 4 projects I'm going to tackle this winter - I hope they inspire you to get more about of this season than just a new way to moan about how cold it is. 

1.  Read a classic 

Can there be anything nicer in this world than snuggling up on your couch with a hot drink to hand and a good book to read? No. But there isn’t always time for that little luxury, is there?  But winter gives you time, winter slows time and whispers…read...read. One way to feel better about the fact that you're spending hours in a supine position with a book in your hand is to tell yourself that its 'improving', so..read a classic. If you're not sure what to read, here's a cute little quiz you can take that will help you. 

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/03/quiz-classic-read-next/

I’m going to read Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier and The Gambler by Dostoyevsky. What are you going to read? 

I already have a video about reading classics up on my Youtube channel so I’ll put it in here in case you never got to watch it. It's in the form of an interview with Fiona Veitch Smith, the editor of my first book, Sharkey's Son  and an author in her own right. 

2  Sort something

I follow the Kon Mari method of decluttering and sorting. Have you heard of her? If not, here's a link so you can find out more about this little Japanese dynamo, Marie Kondo

I'm going to sort out my huge box of muddled up photographs. Do you have anything in mind? 

3.  Binge watch a series 

Why not? I'm not suggesting you take a week off work to do this..just spend every evening or every weekend evening..watching one of those series that really makes your life feel better. I know, I know..some series start out so promising but before long have morphed into an immorality feast. Here's a link to the Top Ten Clean TV Shows

4.  Select a Bible study 

Winter is a great time to do a really meaty Bible study. Here are some links to Bible studies you can do that I would recommend. 

King's Cross Training

This is the ministry that my husband and I pioneered. Check out our courses here

And finally, do watch my Hibernation projects video below. 

A sense of winter

    

A SENSE OF PLACE

I have 150 000 different ways to describe the sea. That's because I live next to the sea and every         morning it challenges me to a duel - a duel of words. Honestly, I can't eat my Jungle Oats until I've     satisfied my inner critic that the words I've selected to describe the tint, the timbre and the tang of       the ocean are all suitably surprising and in every way, spot-on. And who, I might ask, gets to hear       these ozone-flecked odes? That's right..nobody. But I do it anyway because I'm addicted to trying       to describe places. A friend and fellow writer once told me that she writes because "I have stories       I want to tell". I then confessed that I write because "I have places I want to describe". 

I'm occasionally asked to coach at writing workshops. I almost always teach about how to evoke,       what is known in literary circles as, 'a sense of place'. Its not that hard if you remember to call upon   your 5 senses - touch, taste, hearing, vision and smell. A novice writer can leap from 'pretty               pathetic' to 'shows promise' after just 10 minutes of tender coaching in the art of                                   somathesthesia..that's 'bodily sensation' to you and I..learning to write for the senses. What did the     door feel like..rough, smooth, cold and foreboding? What did her hair smell like..cherries, cold           chips, wind-swept heather? 

A SENSE OF WINTER

Inspired by a little book called How To Be Chic In The Winter by Fiona Ferris, I decided to use the same technique - evoking the 5 senses - to make life both meaningful and delightful this winter. For myself. And then I had the thought that I shouldn't really keep all that good stuff away from you and..voila..Winterise went public and video #1 in the series was born - a sense of winter. Here's how I am interpreting a sense of winter in my home and life..I'd love to hear your ideas.