h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hot nuts (roast chestnuts).

I think Hot nuts really should have been posted after 2legs post rather than yes, Mr. D, extra virgin.

Where do you get your extra virgin olive oil from? We've had some lovely stuff for very little money from ALDI, and I hear LIDL do a good cheap one, too.

Sainsburys..they do a variety. I don't use anything but that now..even for stuff like toast and marmite. It actually works out cheaper cos I got used to just using a few drops for most things.

mmmm... hot extra virgin nuts....

Autumn is my favorite season, but I love winter, too. I don't even mind the snow (except when we have 30+ inches fall overnight like that one time last year). I thrive in cool weather and don't even need my coat until long after other people do. But what I love most: crisp, cool air; making soups and stews; baking homemade bread; logs on the fireplace; frost crunching under my feet; hot tea and cocoa; seeing my breath when I exhale and frosty patterns on the windows; needing long sleeves or even a jacket; no humidity to wreak havoc on my poor hair.

And *not sweltering and smelling other people's B.O.*

But I could give all that christmas junk a miss.

For me, it is a toss-up for fave season between the new life of Spring, or the aromas and colours of Autumn. I really haven't liked winter since perhaps 1966 or so ... Snow shovels are not toys, they are not fun, and have never been fun.

Autumn and Winter are fantastic, although I loathe , maybe due to being try-pdal, but I've never really liked it.

Yet...

I rarely do up my coat, even though I have Reynard's and don't feel the cold.

But the Autumn colours, the influx of winter birds, especially waterfowl, and crisp weather is so rich in it's bounty, with beautiful countryside images.

Prefer it to the Summer. Definitely...

MMF

i also like Autumn for that feeling of poignancy of things dying..but with such amazing colour...and seeing flocks of swallows leaving sometimes heading to Africa..but then you get November when the leaves have mostly gone.

Interestingly the Celtic New year was at the end of October. Halloween, All Hallows eve was its eve when two worlds came together...the dead and the living.

The Celts were big into boundaries of all kinds.

>>The greatest thing about winter is that Christmas will soon be over.<<

It has already begun....

I was in Sainsbury's last night - and the elves were lining the shelves with Christmas and Santa shaped chocolate sweets - IN SEPTEMBER!

Minor gripe aside, for all of the above for the enjoyment and sensory quality to the change of seasons, I agree. Brilliant.

"No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!"

From Thomas Hood's 'November': http://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/82/357.html

And:

The Art of Noise - Opus 4 (No vember): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcpTZLVZwEY

*Pining for spring*

Snowstorms aside, the weather is generally better in winter.

Haven't dealt with many Canadian winters, have you?

It'll be time to put the Big Light back on any day now (SAD light).

Apparently there's a heatwave at the moment. The incessant mentions of it in the London-centric media are furthering the Scottish Nationalist cause.

Yes its simply unbelievable weather..and truly wonderful. even at night it is warm and the sky has a kind of velvet quality and even for London the stars are really bright..it's like a kind of gift before we start getting chilly and that poignancy thing really hits.

Sorry if it's not so great in Scotland

I really am genuinely miffed, for once. I could do with a wee blast of warmth.

But the truly weird thing is that my winter flowering jasmine is already out very early.

It's not just me that's gone mad of late.

This isn't natural, it's witchcraft I tells ya!

I am melting and I have no energy.

Mine isn't out yet, but I'm a bit further north than you, Effers (Midlands).

Looks like I'm alone in looking forward to Christmas. Not the commerciality of it all, I hate the crowds and the determined festivity of it all, but I do love the twinkling lights and the excitement of my niece & nephews. All the family get together on Christmas Day and the TV is banned, so it's music and talking and board games.

Then it's Boxing Day and, oh, bliss, I now have a week of lie-ins (ie not getting up at 5.30am) and (if it's not raining*) long walks on Cannock Chase, just me, the dog and nature at it's quietest. Then when I go back to work my desk isn't piled high as everyone else has also been off.

Plus this year I have a new boiler so I'm looking forward to my house being warm & toasty.

Deb

* Apart from rain (which is pretty year round anyway) I don't mind winter weather.