I have been missing in action due to some intense studies as I have written exams from mid May till today. I am glad to be back though.

Where I live (North West province of South Africa), winters are cold, temperatures fall to below zero degrees at night but we tend to have generally crisp sunny winter days. Certinly not snow and ice winters, though snow does fall on higher ground in the Lesotho or Drakensberg mountains, and even Western Cape. Then we feel the 'cold' all the way north, but no, we don't physically have freezing snow and ice covered winters...

Winter on the highveldt - Photo courtesy of http://www.fotothing.com/Ykeep/photo/10/

The above photo is not my own, but is a good example of how winters in my area look. Dry grass, dry lands as the corn and sunflower fields usually are harvested mid May-mid June and stand brown and bare till mid September when they start ploughing and clearing the fields for summer plantings - usually early October, depends on our rains.

I don't much like winters. In fact I say it very lightly here. We are moving into one now. Fall or Autumn, is like Spring in 'sunny' South Africa. They last a week, at most a month where I stay. I love Spring and I love Autumn. Summers are usually enjoyable. Winter....Sigh....We mainly get long summers and long winters. Well not as long as some places in the Northern Hemisphere where winter is more than 6 months...So yes, our winters could be 'worse'. So with this in mind, I have decided to try and change my approach to winter this year and not moan and gripe about it all the time. Not only on the blogs but mentally and in my everyday life.

I have a decent job, a decent house to sleep warm in every evening, a nice warm bath before bedtime...and our tummies are always full. So much to be grateful for as so many in our country, and around the world cannot say even one of those things for one day a year. So yes, let me start by looking on the positive side of winter.

Spring always follows winter, sometimes speedily into summer. Without wishing my days away, that already is wonderful news.

I've already explained our winters aren't as awfully cold as other parts of the world. Also something to be grateful about, although the white winters always look postcard beautiful, I know they bring their own problems. I have experienced one such winter in the NE USA and it was wonderful and freezing. And dirty and never ending.

And so - for my approach to the bare, brown lands that lie before me - they lie in await for Summer when the farmers plough and sow them full of corn and sunflowers. Nature is cyclic, that's it. Our lives are too. We need to rest and slow down in winter in order to be able to plant again in Spring. Same in our lives.

So without me turning into a hibernating bear, let me get on with the joys of enjoying life, and in this stage of my life, Winter 2011. Albeit at a slower pace, the point for me, is to see the beauty in every single day. because it is there, right in front of me. The natural beauty, and the plant beauty (I have some cacti that will be blooming soon, I am now going to watch them with an eagle eye!) and even the people beauty around us. They are there. 'You will only see as deep as you want to see" ( http://doloresayotte.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/standing-on-your-tiptoes-may-30-2011/)

Enjoy your Springs and Summer and Winters where you are. Do also read here for some more inspiration for the day. With all her posts Dolores made me realise we have much to be grateful every day...winter or not...

http://doloresayotte.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/thoughtful-thursday-peace-in-lifes-simple-pleasures-may-26-2011/

Thank you Dolores

See you through the window

LG