Depending on when you’re reading this, the year may just have turned: the winter solstice in the UK takes place at 9.19am on Saturday 21 December. We are shifting out of the darkness. There’s actually something of a pause before daylight starts gradually stretching out again – as Katherine May points out in her perennial bestseller Wintering, sunrise and sunset remain the same for a few days. “The original meaning is revealed in the Latin etymology of the word solstice: sol stit. The sun has stopped,” May wrote.
Traditionally, I’ve clung on to the winter solstice with equal, if not more fervour than Christmas. January may be bleak and riddled with bossy instructions to self-improve but at least the days are getting longer. More daylight means more time in the garden and more light for the plants. The early harbingers of spring – snowdrops, witch hazel blossom, the heady whiff of sweet box – all begin to appear.
