Glowing embers

It's March and Spring is sort of here at last.  Out of the window, if it wasn't for the rain, I'm sure I would be seeing sunshine and blue skies. It's amazing what one day of sunshine can do.  On Tuesday, only Tuesday, it was hotter here than in many Mediterranean countries and slowly people began to unfurl. Instead of scuttling down the road, heads bowed against the cold, concentrating on the quickest route to somewhere warm, people looked up at the blue skies, caught each other's eye and even smiled..There is something about lighter mornings and less cloudy skies, that fills you with hope. We all leave behind our Winter cocoon and step more happily into tomorrow. The only thing I miss about the cocoon, is the  afternoons and evenings spent " chillin," around the fire in the living room.  Sometimes it is hard to hold your children close. As they grow up, they move away from you and rarely choose to inhabit the same space. But lighting a fire is like lighting a beacon, within moments the floor in front of the fireplace is full of children and pets, vying for the warmest space. And usually it is the pets that win!  But as we draw the curtain to hide the darkness, it often feels like we are drawing a curtain around our small family, wrapping ourselves in a blanket of warmth in the orange glow.  We don't do anything special, mostly just watch television or eat dinner as we sit on the floor. Sometimes though, we chat. Watching the flickering flames we wander from subject to subject: school, friends, football, music, chocolate. And as I listen,  I realise, that it is not the special things we do that create memories but the embers of shared evenings spent round a fire that will glow inside us, however far from each other we drift.

And just in case we drift too far before next Winter, we have built a firepit in the garden!