My Winter Rhythm
I’m getting back into my winter rhythm. At the start of each season, there’s a time when I’m not really sure what I am doing. I have to check which fruit and veggies are now ripe and ready to eat. Think about what recipes to cook. Figure out how my days are going to go. And then after a little disruption, I get back into the rhythm of the new season.
My winter rhythm is filled with lots of snuggly, warm activities. The girls and I start each morning with a big giggle and tickle o’clock somewhere in the middle of breakfast. We play Scrabble in the afternoons. Drink lots of cups of liquorice tea on the couch while we read books together, out loud and on our own. This year the girls have discovered Fimo and are busy making things for their dolls.
For me, I know when it’s winter when I am dehydrating pecans in the oven. Once a week I buy 500g of organic Byron Bay Pecans from the local market. I then soak them overnight in water salted with pink Himalayan salt. The next morning I drain the pecans which have swelled up nicely and lay them out on trays lined with baking paper. I then dehydrate them in the oven at a low temp (200 F) for about four hours.
The rhythm of dehydrating my own organic pecans grounds me. The repetitive activity is soothing. The smell of baking pecans wafts through the house. It connects me to the earth and to the season. It brings me home.