The Joys of Winter - Seriously

Winter finally came. After rain and wind for the autumn straight through Christmas, January finally started looking and feeling like winter. I never used to like winter but I have discovered the joy of the season in the past few years.
1. No working. As a horticulturist snow and ice = time off.
2. New wardrobe. Long wool coats with matching or contrasting accessories, short jackets, a variety of sweaters, boots of every colour and height. By the time warm weather comes around I have forgotten what my summer wardrobe looks like and it is all new again too.
3. Shoe shoeing. I stay on top of the snow, the dog sinks giving her an extra workout without taxing my energy.
4. Storm days. I don't really need the excuse to stay home but I'll take an excuse anyway. This pine in our neighbours field cracked in a wind storm before Christmas, it got hung up on another pine, and they both came down Friday, our most recent windy, snowy day.
5. Sunny days. The sun on snow makes the house bright.
6. Curling. It's really just an excuse for different clothes, see item 2. But it also gives me some exercise and gets me out of the house except when item 4 gives me the excuse to stay home.
7. Books. Sadly the other three seasons keep me too busy to read for pleasure much, and I no longer can use public transit to go to work, so winter is reading time. I've been catching up, it's heavenly.
8. Birthday! It was last week, I got good loot and the sweetie made me gingerbread cake with whipped cream.
9. Pottery. I've been experimenting with form and technique again, and while that is producing another batch of mishmash without any coherence (again) I don't care, I'm having fun.
10. Garden Reading. Mostly magazines and websites and seed catalogues allowing me to plan and dream what I could do next year without the hassle of actually remembering how much work it all is.

Curling Mash Up

So I had this brilliant idea the other day. I like classic novels, particularly the Miss Jane Austen kind, but I'm also rather fond of the Brontes. I also like ironic post modern fiction, so I'm not above reading those (mostly) dreadful fan fic mash ups that are on the book store shelves recently. I admit to buying Pride and Prejudice and Zombies simply for the cover art, but I was utterly disappointed by the completely bad writing. Not Jane's obviously, but that other fellow who inserted the Zombies. Unlike (I think) most P&P fans, I found P&P&Z annoying not because there were zombies, but because the zombie parts were crap. I mean, if you're going to put your stuff right next to Jane's, it better be good right? Otherwise you run the risk that you just look really really bad. Like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Man In the Iron Mask along side real actors like John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons. (Who thought that was a good idea?)
No, the really annoying thing about P&P&Z is that I could have done it better. If only someone had suggested to me first. So here comes my big idea. Given that mashups are big, and right now Curling is big. I know Curling. I know Classics. I know mashups. It's perfect. I am going to write a Classic/Curling mashup. At first I thought I should just insert some curling mayhem into the Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Then I thought, I'll put a Canadian spin on it (because that's what is missing from all these other mashups isn't it?) and I'll mashup a classic Canadian play with a classic English novel and call it The Black Bonspiel of Wildfell Hall.
This is going to be Awesome.