Winter-Spring Update (2022)

Last year I wrote quarterly/seasonal updates (from "season to season"). Although I enjoyed doing monthly updates in 2019 and "two monthly" (two months at a time) ones in 2020, I found that quarterly updates suited me better. So, I've decided to do the same during 2022. :)

You can see my 2021 autumn-winter update here if you like: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/01/christmas-brown-butter-pecan-cake.html

 

We started the year with some coronavirus restrictions still in place, mainly face masks in indoor public places, isolation rules if testing positive and social distancing. 

I went to Starbucks in Worthing and got my favourite mocha Frappuccino. I didn't do much else out of the house, apart from going to the library. And I kept up my regular weekly park walks.

I baked a Coca Cola chocolate cake (where you put Coke in the sponge and icing). It's one of my favourite cakes but I don't make it that often. You can see a picture here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/02/coca-cola-chocolate-cake.html

I also had a go at making this "Change Your Life Chicken" (found the recipe through The Tex Mex Mom's email newsletter, where she shares her weekly meal plans): https://www.thelazygeniuscollective.com/blog/change-your-life-chicken

It was quite nice.

At the beginning of February, I celebrated Imbolg/Imbolc. You can see a post about my celebrations here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/02/imbolg-2022.html

Also in Feb, I went to my belly dance group's hafla (dance party). I last went to one in September, so it was good to go again.

March started with my birthday. I celebrated at home on the day and the went to Nando's later in the week. Last year they were only open for takeaway, since we were in lockdown. So, it was nice to be able to eat in there again. I had my favourite chicken butterfly (plain-ish) and chips. Here's a picture:

 

 

Then I had vanilla frozen yoghurt for pudding (dessert). They don't appear to be doing the carrot cake anymore (which is a shame because it was really nice!), so I got some chocolate cake to take home instead.

In early March I went to a belly dance workshop in Brighton with Nadia Undine. We learnt 3 short choreographies- a dance to a pop song, a veil dance and a drum solo. It was good to dance again and learn something new.  

And later that month I celebrated Oestara/the Spring Equinox. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/03/oestara-2022.html

The weather had warmed up to 17/18C (62/64F) during March but then as we moved into April it went cold again, dropping to 7C (44F) during the day and around 0C (32F) or lower some nights. They had snow in some parts of the UK but we just had a bit of sleet in the Brighton area. More snow and cold weather was forecast for this weekend. It's not been really cold here though.

Despite the changeable weather, it's been nice to see signs of spring, especially daffodils and blossom trees.  Here is a picture of Hove Park that I took in March: 

 

Blossom trees in Hove Park

Our Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a plan for "living with Covid" in February and all restrictions were basically dropped in England in March. Other countries in the UK have been relaxing their rules too. It feels weird because it's now over 2 years since we first went into lockdown! It's strange to look back on my March/April update from 2020. It's been a difficult two years, not only with the pandemic but also with other world events, such as the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and subsequent racial unrest, and now the war in Ukraine.

So that's it about it for the updates! I'm glad that we're well into spring now, although I would like it to warm up a bit! Easter is next weekend (Easter Sunday is 17th April). I'm not planning to do a separate post about it, but I'll include it in my spring-summer update. I'll probably also do a post about celebrating Beltane at the end of the month. Last year I did a Beltane round-up (the first of my sabbat round-up ones), so it might just be a quick post. I've done a lot of sabbat celebration posts on here over the years!

Hope everyone is doing ok, or as well as can be expected. :) How has your transition from winter to spring to been? (Or from summer to autumn, depending where you live?) 

 

Update 11/4/22: I remembered that I thought I'd bring back the section of what I read, links I found useful etc. I stopped sharing that last year because it was a bit more difficult to keep track of those things over a longer period of time. But I did enjoy writing about it, so I'll include it in this post. :)

Read: The Quickening by Rhiannon Ward, Happy Days by Gabrielle Bernstein (non-fiction, birthday present).

 

Links I found useful in winter and spring:

Videos on Anh Lin's YouTube channel (nice and relaxing): https://www.youtube.com/c/GirlandTheWord

Post about making changes to help your mental health: https://theeverygirl.com/mental-health-changes/

 

P.S. If you'd like some spring and/or Easter inspiration, check out these posts: 

Preparing for Spring + Spring Inspiration (includes some Easter baking posts): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/03/preparing-for-spring-spring-inspiration.html

Oestara + Spring Inspiration: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/03/oestara-spring-inspiration.html