March came in like a lion, didn’t it? All the freezing cloud, snow, wind and weather that stopped life from going on as per usual. It’s so appealing to a hygge lover, because it makes us want to stay inside and hygge. There are very few pleasures quite as appealing as snuggling down with a pot of tea and a warm slice of toast.

When the front path looks like this,  staying in and snuggling is a no-brainer.

Sadly, it hasn’t lasted. In Liverpool, the snow was melting by later on that day. I think by Saturday any trace of snow had gone. Today the sun is shining, the BBC weather app tells me it’s a balmy 7 degrees and my primroses at home were looking a lot perkier than last week. I can finally believe that spring is around the corner: we’re looking at Easter in less than 4 weeks time and I’m elbow-deep in house-cleaning still.

I’ve found cleaning more mindful than I ever thought I would. I think because it’s impossible to do pretty much anything else when I clean, except to listen to Audible books, then it makes me stay in the moment. This weekend I chose a great book to listen to, The Shed Method by Sara Milne Rowe.  It’s a good book with great advice on setting up routines and systems in your life to support a better way of living. SHED stands for sleep, hydration, exercise and diet, so basically the pillars that keep your life good.

Now I’m looking at the days ahead and beginning to plan. My garden had become overgrown in the past three years and has been decimated by the gardener so it is now a blank slate ready for me to fill again with shrubs and flowers as well as furniture to support an easy, hygge way of living in the summer. I wrote a whole chapter in How to Hygge Your Summer  about setting up your garden for maximum hygge in the good weather. I need to reseed the lawn, obviously, and then to get my seating areas up again. I have a settee-area under my trees, an eating area on the patio and I want a cafe/coffee area in the far corner that catches the sun most often in the evening when the rest of the garden is in shade. I need to re-read that book, and soon, to remember all the great advice in it.

My firepit will come into its own this year as well. There is no place better to get a boy to talk about his stresses and pressures than over a firepit on the evening before or after an exam.

With Eldest Child on 2nd year exams, 2nd Son on A levels and Sarah doing her GCSEs, the pit will be well-used by 21st June when the last exams happen.

I’m pinning my ideas on two boards on Pinterest, Front Garden Ideas and My Little Cottage Garden. Hopefully, I can get my dream gardens into being: not perfectly, I don’t believe in perfection, but good enough.

You can read about my plans for summer hygge in  How to Hygge Your Summer, in Paperback and Kindle form, from Amazon. Summer hygge is about far more than throws and fireplaces… although fire and candles still play a large part in it.

My other books have more ideas that are good for hygge all year round, and are all available from Amazon. 50 Ways to Hygge the British Way  is available in Paperback and Kindle version . Have Yourself a Happy Hygge Christmas was released in September 2017 and is available again in paperback and ebook version.

If you purchase anything through the links on this page, I get a couple of pence extra per copy, and if you’ve already read my books and enjoyed them, please leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

****How to Hygge the British Way Blog isn’t monetised. I have taken the decision that I want to remain neutral and not to promote things just because. I will only ever review items that I have bought myself, or that I think will help to promote hygge in a busy life. To do this, I need support. Even just the price of a coffee adds up to a book over time, and it means I can stay independent. Would you help?

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