Winter Solstice

And it's brutally cold here in the mountains. Daytime temperatures are no more than a degree above the night-time ones of 3° or 4°C. We haven't yet got our house in order - no curtains on the windows, for instance, so it's hard to keep the interior warm. The Australian defiance of the fact that they have a winter at all doesn't help either. Windows are single-glazed, construction design and materials don't include insulation, and heating systems are not as advanced as they are in Canada with its longer winter. My favourite accessories right now are a pair of Peruvian-patterned woolly socks, knitted by Kathy Wilson, late of Langley, in a combination of wool from our sheep and fleece from her llamas.