A cozy dinner by the fire, Shepherd’s Pie, Flourless Chocolate Tart, and some good red wine.
One of my favorite times in Mother Nature is after a big snowstorm. The stillness and silence—everything is asleep, tucked away nice and warm under the snow. All my dogs and I love to go out and play, and then we all come in to warm up in front of a big fire.
I always make sure my bird feeders are full during the winter months, and enjoy watching the pecking order of chickadees, sparrows, blue jays, woodpeckers, nuthatches, cardinals, tufted titmice, and juncos as they help themselves. On Christmas Day, I make a huge batch of nuts and seeds and put them all over the place for all the critters that live at Templeton. Every year I make a gingerbread house that I put out for the squirrels. I make sure everyone has a fat tummy at Christmas.
Soups and stews on the stove and chestnuts roasting away in the oven make the house smell delicious. It is a season for full-bodied red wine and brandy, brunches, and early Sunday dinners with friends. It is also a season of presents and pull-out-all-the-stops holiday parties. Christmas Eve is always black tie, but the formality stops there!
Cornelia Guest Cookies on an old chair. The tapestry is an Aesop Fable, they were my favorites as a child.
When days are short, curling up with a book in a bed made with flannel sheets and a fluffy down comforter is de rigueur, and my dogs are the best hot water bottles ever. A window is always open in my room regardless of the temperature outside so that the tip of my nose stays cold. It makes going to sleep more delicious and gives me rosy cheeks. Nature, too, needs time to restore herself and to prepare for the growth of spring.
It gets dark early in the winter, so I like to light a fire, grab a glass of red wine, and cook. What I want to eat in the winter is so different from the light foods of summer and spring. We all need robust food that keeps us warm and fills us up. I like dinners in front of the fire when the days are short and cold.
When we plant bulbs in pots—paperwhites are my favorites—Thanksgiving and Christmas are around the corner. We also plant seeds indoors so that the seedlings are ready to go out when the ground thaws in the spring.
One of the things I relish most about winter is the pluck of its blooms. What moxie the camellia japonica possesses! There’s nothing more simple or elegant than camellia blooms floating in a silver or pewter Revere bowl by candlelight. Lenten roses defy the elements in winter and are lovely floating in a nut dish or bud vase.
One of my all-time favorite winter tricks is to find lichen-covered branches in my yard and place them in an old urn. Just walk around and see what you come up with! If you are a city mouse, branches can be had at your neighborhood flower shop.
MARGOT SHAW
Editor, Flower magazine
The painting of my father, Winston, with his grandmother, Annie Phipps.
