Ah, winters!

The hacking cough which I’ve had since before Christmas seems to finally be abating, and just in the nick of time; I’m off to far colder climes next week. The boyfriend and I are escaping to sub-zero Berlin, taking in cabaret, an abandoned Soviet amusement park, and German wine (gulp? Quite literally…) My excitement is mounting, particularly since I haven’t been out of the UK for four years, and is reaching a slightly worrying fever pitch (or maybe that’s just my cold). I will return on the 22nd with reams of photographs and stories to share here, I’m sure.

It may be a little late to be getting into the wintry spirit, but a recent visit to the Serpentine gallery has got me dreaming of a white Berlin even more; my friend Rohanne and I visited an exhibition of video artist Jonas Mekas there, which was filled with joyous imagery and poetry of the snowy season, including the typewritten proclamation “Ah, winters!”

Perhaps it’s all this dreamy imagery and dreamier day dreaming which has led to What To Look For In Winter turning into something of a frosty fairy tale.

Winter has become personified as a man so cold he sets the world on permafrost when the heroine of the fairytale marries him.

I’m not sure if I can get away with blaming it on my cold, but I’ve made a couple of mistakes with these latest two pages; I got a bit too needle-happy with the “When I married Winter, the world was put on permafrost” page, and tore straight through the paper! However, a mistake can soon become a happy accident, and I patched up the hole with a teeny tiny pine cone embroidery which ties in with the narrative and illustration on the reverse of the stitched page.

I accidentally omitted a comma after “kiss” on this page, and ran out of the right shade of blue thread just at the last minute of stitching! Here’s hoping my holiday will revivify me so I won’t make any more rookie mistakes!