It’s a proper winter. Cold everywhere and shattering records for snowfall and coldness everywhere from Japan and China to the Sahara. Bad news for The Guardian – more snow than I have seen in a year or two and certainly NOT a thing of the past. Why anyone should be surprised given that the Sun went into one of its cooling cycles (Oh yes, some people think CO2 is the driver of climate/weather – that gas that plants breathe and is currently about 1/3rd of where on average it has been for the last 100 million years and despite all of the published science clearly showing that it isn’t).

Apologies – I hadn’t intended this as a climate change blog at all – I just got a tad carried away!

My walk around the Castle today took place in magnificent winter sun sparkling off of fresh snowfall amid -2C temperatures. It seemed a wonderful day to try to walk and invoke Morana – the Goddess of Winter in Slavic lands and I did so. It’s amazing how this alters your perception of sights and sounds. Suddenly, the world is brighter and more vibrant – more real. As I imagined her form and took it on as me, a strong gust of icy wind hit me buffetting me and showering me with shards of snow and ice from nearby trees. It was a ‘Hello’ from Morana and I could sense Her in the wind and all around. Cold, aloof, proud and haughty. It is Her season now and She is Queen – the Snow Queen.

I was struck also by the realization that although it is winter and much is sleeping – hibernating – or has died. The Castle hill is awash with birds and sounds of life. The drilling of a woodpecker, the squawks of crows as the work the territory for food in groups of 5 or 6 birds, the sweet songs of smaller Tits of amazing colors and shades hopping from branch to branch and feeding at little sacks of food kindly left tied to trees by some bird lover. Although life seems to have withdrawn into the Earth, there is still much going on.

Today, I seemed to tune in to a lighter side of winter and of the goddess. She isn’t all death and darkness it seemed to me. In deed, there seemed to be a little playfulness in evidence today – visible in the birds and in the gusts of icy wind and snow. And even in the visage and profile of a snowman someone had built!