There’s a week still left in February, but today is Pancake Tuesday.

I no longer need to race home desperately wondering how on Earth I am going to mix, toss and serve enough pancakes to keep the kids happy, because it turns out that my Daughter is a much better pancake maker than I ever was. Sarah, you are an absolute star, because I know you will make and serve them all evening despite working today!

But Pancake Tuesday does make my thoughts turn to Easter and Spring. It’s inevitable. I’ll be changing my mantelpiece this weekend, probably, for branches carefully trimmed from my garden or pussy willow bought in the supermarket, but I’ll hold off on displaying my collection of eggs, bunnies and chickadees until nearer Easter itself.

Today, though, the sunshine is tricking me into thinking Spring is nearer than it probably is and, in typical optimistic style, to start planning ahead. It does seem like every two years I get inspired to think of Spring Hygge but my Spring Hygge list from 2021 still stands. The basic tenets of hygge do not change. Hygge is very much about planning for all five senses, building in time alone and in company and time to be home, cosy and contented. Nevertheless, I have started a new Spring Hygge list in my Filofax, mostly because I’ve started writing in green ink to make even the dreariest and most boring shopping list seem happy, and it is growing apace. In Spring 2023 my Hygge ambitions are:

• Switching out my tea from Chai (although it never leaves my kitchen shelf) to Earl Grey or Pukka’s pink-lined Love tea. All sipped from an impossibly pretty floral teacup. I’ve inherited a few, and collected others. I also mean to have friends over for afternoon teas/evening cocktails, or to visit them with prettily wrapped lemon drizzle cakes to share.
• Keeping up with my embroidery craft project. I bought a free-embroidery bag kit for my hibernation period this year and, although I know the weeks of hibernation are soon to be over and past for me, the pattern is beautiful and I have plans to complete it and use it as my evening bag of choice this summer.
• Having a more settled morning routine again. Sarah starts work at 7am three or four days a week, and I return from dropping her off by 7.10. Sitting quietly, drinking tea and nibbling breakfast while I read, sew or journal for an hour til the rest of the household awakes sounds ideal to me.
• And that reading? For the next few weeks it seems fitting to follow on my 40 days of Celtic Advent with 40 days of Celtic Lent. I’m also finishing up Hagitude, and finding my inner old crone irresistible to draw, and have plans to read Waking Up In Winter as well.
• Since the temperature in my office corner can vary from 12 to 28 degrees within one day, depending on internal heating and external sunshine, I’ve shifted my wardrobe more towards layers: shirts, cotton tops, cardigans or scarfs and shawls. Something I can slip on and off as I need to. And I’ve got my red accessories out again: purse, planner, pouches for bags. A bright shade to make me smile.
• The garden is looking rough after a winter of winds and rain, so in the next couple of weeks I will brush up the leaves and twigs from my patio area and start taking my drink out there as soon as I can. Not so much in the morning, but when I return from work, so I can enjoy the fresh air after a day inside. And, of course, I can hear the birdsong as it builds in intensity to nesting season.
• With my return to my crimson Malden (how I love that planner design!) I’m free to compile lists ready to go: pruning and rewriting my GTD lists for home, office, errands and online, a list of places I want to visit on days out, another of possible weekend jaunts and yet one more for books read this year. Books, films, TV, podcasts… I need a list of the *absolute* best ones to keep me grounded. I’ve started Yellowstone, which I think is as far away from Little House on the Prairie as a series can be, but is a fascinating saga and which I feel obliged to watch before letting myself near to 1923 just to enjoy Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in full ‘We’re old, and we don’t care who knows it’ mode.

Spring is a vexatious season: there one minute and coquettishly hiding beneath a snow cloud the next. Nevermind. As long as I know it’s coming, that March and April are waiting to be enjoyed, I can keep positive. The lengthening days are more obvious now: sunrise is in full bloom as I take Sarah at 6.40am, while sunset now waits for me to be in my cosy nook, tea in one hand and Kindle in another.

I hope you have plans for now and for next month as well? What are you hoping to enjoy? How will you tweak your hygge ready for Spring?

How to Hygge the British Way is my gift to the world. I don’t get paid for writing it, I’m not in it for the kudos, financial rewards, to become an influencer, work with brands or otherwise make any money from the blog. That’s why there are no ads, and any products I mention and recommend have either been gifted to me or bought by me with my everyday wages or donations from supporters. Every book I review has been bought and read by me, unless stated otherwise.

I do get a couple of pennies each time someone buys from the Amazon links on my page, as an Amazon Affiliate, but otherwise if you’d like to support me, I like to give something back in return. That’s why I write books. It always feels good if you get a book back in return for some money. You can find a full list of my books at my Author’s Page on Amazon, but especially recommended for this time of year are:

Cosy Happy Hygge: Setting up a rhythm to life and rituals to enjoy it to make for a more balanced life that handles waves and storms better. Lent is a season of rituals and resets. The book has small and easy ways to make your life flow with grace and happiness, which lead to more hygge.

Happier: Probably my most personal book, it’s the story of how I used hygge and the little things in life to help boost my happiness. I still go back and reread to remind myself what I need to do to be a happy human. And it’s always the little things.

And my Christmas books are still all available now to buy ready for next season: 

Have Yourself a Happy Hygge Christmas is the basic, all round Christmas hygge book, with advice and ideas on how to make hygge (the cosiest way to be mindful and live in the moment) a large part of all your celebrations.

Enjoying a Self-Care Christmas is about taking time to look after yourself at the busiest season of all and is only available in ebook, with its own advent calendar of selfcare ideas.

 Celebrating a Contagious Christmas was my answer to Christmas in Lockdowns in 2020 but might (sadly) prove useful for a few more years to come. It has advice on celebrating small scale, and keeping a Christmas flexible. I’m itching to write a new Christmas book, on simplicity, frugality, minimalism and making the meaning of your Christmas more significant, but time, time, time…

If you’d like to support me, but don’t want to buy a book, I have a Paypal.Me account as Hygge Jem. Every little helps, so even a few pence goes towards the books, goods and courses I use and recommend on the site. I’m grateful for every little bit that brings me closer to my dream of full-time writing, and I know I couldn’t still be writing if it weren’t for the support of many readers and friends out there. Thank you all for every little bit of support, emotional, physical and financial, you give me.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share it or save it so others can enjoy reading, thinking about and living hygge as well.

The photo between post and promotions is a photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash. I love the snowdrops, such a harbinger of Spring, while the colours behind make me think sunrise and the start of the day. And the Header is a shot of my Spring Hygge list in my crimson Malden planner with my personal work coffee cup behind… Peter has one saying The Boss!