Blogmas 9; What winter items can I not live without?

The British Weather is so wishy-washy we get neither burning sun nor deep dark snow drifts. We get a lot of wetness. It's no wonder that  the preferred building material of choice is either brick or stone instead of wooden boards that would just shrivel and moulder away. Our winter items we desperately need therefore are not the chains for the car nor the snowsuits that keep out the sharp cold of icy blasts but the ones that either keep you dry or get you warm after your poor tootsies have got damp.

My essential winter kit;

A decent umbrella. Actually a few decent umbrellas for different purposes. A big golfing brolly to share on the touchline or on a wet walk, a small fit in the bag brolly for shopping and a medium sized car brolly are the very minimum, but since it pays to be prepared, a few of each means that if anyone pops by without their own essential kit (obviously not a Cub Scout leader) then the required item can be loaned. My bestest favourite one is a long brolly I bought in Berlin (approx 1 metre long) and had to carry on the plane and take great care with to get it home in one piece. Cherished? Yes, it was.

Lip balm in a good flavour. I love cherry, I adore vanilla, I had a raspberry one when I was in school that I could positively eat for fun. I need several left around the house, my bags, my car, several coat pockets. The Princess has the same problem with easily chapped lips so at the moment we are keeping Vaseline going. Santa usually delivers really cute little pots that help with January and February lips, while a couple of pounds on a cute pot on holiday help to feed the souvenir bug with something useful.

Hot Chocolate or at the least the items required to make a decent hot chocolate. Frothy cream, chocolate powder, mini marshmallows and a good quality Hot Chocolate. We love Galaxy as it is so creamy and thick. Mmmm.


Tomato Soup. We aren't usually brand snobs but for tomato soup it has to be Heinz for its sweetness, thickness and the fact it holds the heat better than any other. Fact. If we get a snow day or any other really cold, sharp weather day that tempts us out for a walk and a mess around in the park, then tomato soup is the best warm up agent on return. With buttered toast or thick cut bread dipped in. And it carries memories of half frozen fingers clutching gratefully at a paper cup as we played Christmas carols in the town centre when we (my brothers and I) played in a concert band.

A good book, more than a decent TV programme, so that as the rain taps out the morse code for "Ha ha ha, you can't go out today without being bloody cold" I can escape to a completely different world. This year it is Westeros and the rest of the known world.

A  good blanket. A homemade blanket is made with love, so it feels warmer. My favourites? My ripple blanket; plenty big enough and still small enough to tidy at the end of the day.