I think everyone has that one season where they have to look a little harder to find joy. For me, that season is winter. Short, dark days – yuck. Cold, wet weather – yuck. Layers of clothes on again and off again every time you need to walk the dog around the block – yuck. No stone fruits or locally grown berries at the grocery store – yuck, yuck yuck.

But after thirteen years living in Lutruwita/Tasmania, one thing I have learned is that there’s no point fighting the winter. All you can do is lean into it, be patient, and take pleasure where you can.

(Three decades living in Scotland before I moved here was good training indeed.)

This season’s blog post reflects that attitude, I think. There are no exciting or adventurous joys in this list – it’s more of a survival guide – but perhaps that is the whole point of this writing exercise. To look harder, and to appreciate ever-smaller and simpler things.

We made it, friends. Another winter done. And now onwards, to glorious, generous, beautiful spring.

Layering: I feel like every winter I have lived here I’ve also learned a new trick for staying warm. In our early years we were meaner with the firewood – lighting it late in the day, keeping the vents closed down, trying to make one load last the season. Now we have it burning early and long and hot, and we re-order a ton of wood as often as we need to.

But the REAL trick, the one I have been perfecting year by year, is not to try and heat this house, but to heat myself. There are no fashion awards being handed out in Nipaluna/Hobart – not at any time of year, but especially not in winter. And so it is that my outfits for the last three months have usually included several long-sleeved merino vests, thermal leggings under my jeans, double socks, and as many woollens and hoodies as I can squeeze on and still walk. On the really chilly days I usually carry a hot water bottle somewhere about my person too.

Moisturising like a mofo: This is the second trick that has taken a few years to get right. Constantly going from indoor environments with heat pumps blowing full blast to cold outdoor air and back again plays havoc with your skin. Usually by the end of June I am dry and blotchy and ready to hide under the duvet until spring.

This year, I came prepared. There is the full body moisturiser that I whack on after a shower every morning. There are the daytime and night time facial moisturisers with fancy French names and price tags to match. There is the dedicated hand moisturiser and the dedicated lip moisturiser and then there is the repair balm for when none of those other things are up to the task. And for perhaps the first time ever I have made it through winter relatively unscathed. They can only do so much – I still look 43 and not 23 – but I’m not quite as itchy and haggard as I usually am by this time of year either. I’m calling that a win.

Flo nasal spray: This is the last of the winter self-care tips before I try and move onto more interesting small joys, but it may be the most important one. Working from home gives us a big advantage when it comes to avoiding winter cold and flu bugs – but I have still been to cafes and restaurants, concerts and museums, friends’ houses, public transport and countless doctors’ waiting rooms this winter. DorkySon and DorkyDad have both had colds too. But thus far (touch wood, fingers crossed etc etc), I have managed a lurgy free season, and I am crediting that to the Flo travel nasal spray that I use every morning.

It has already seen me right on several long-haul flights over the years, helping me avoid that horrible dry, stuffy nose that you get on a plane. But this is the first time I’ve made it part of my regular winter routine and while I may have just been lucky, I’m definitely going to keep going with it and see how long I can make that luck last…

Visiting the new MONA Library: DorkyDad and I played hooky from work one Monday morning and drove out to Berriedale to visit Phrontisterion, the new library at MONA. Featuring more than 30,000 items from David Walsh’s personal book collection, there is a Shakespeare First Folio; signed letters from David Bowie, Albert Einstein and Walt Whitman; and a beautifully inviting children’s space. How lucky we are to have this eccentric, generous and fiercely intelligent fella gifting such lovely things to our island state.

Sundays at Farmy: Farm Gate Market in summer is a joy because of the abundant produce. Berries and cherries, peaches and plums, and all manner of fresh and healthy veggies. Secretly though, I like it better in winter. There might be fewer stalls, but there are also fewer people browsing, which makes it easier to stop for a chat. The sense of camaraderie on those crisp, sometimes misty mornings, when we are all fumbling our coins with cold fingers – that feels a lot like community and I love it. Sunday is usually my gluten cheat day where I say fuck it and eat delicious things and to hell with the consequences – so while I might not go home with much fresh produce, I more than make up for that with pasta and pastries, cookies and cakes.

UTAS Open Day: Poor old DorkySon has reached that stage where he has 18 months left to go at college (Tassie’s high school equivalent) and everyone is starting to pile on the pressure about WHAT COMES NEXT. Mainland uni? Local uni? Gap year? Apprenticeship? Urgh. Imagine being seventeen and being expected to know how you want your life to unfold.

I remember that age as though it was yesterday, and as a much less gracious teen that DorkySon, I got so frustrated with the question that I started telling everyone I was going to be a stripper. Anyway, DorkyDad and DorkySon went to the UTAS Open Day a few weeks ago and had an enormously positive experience. And while there is still plenty of time and opportunities for the plan to change, there is now at least a plan of sorts. Hurrah.

Food, glorious food: Despite the temptation to hibernate over winter, I actually think it’s an especially important season to continue getting out and socialising – and all the better if that can be done over a plate of something delicious. DorkyDad and I kicked off our winter with a quick visit to the Dark Mofo Winter Feast, where we did indeed feast on pork dumplings (Hometown Secret), potato cakes with caviar and crème fraiche (Westside Laundry), and Manchego Cheese Puffs (La Sardina Loca).

Other friend/food highlights of the winter included a Katsu Curry at The Rice Corner in Battery Point; more shared dishes than I can even remember at Bar Wa Izakaya; some very good chicken wings at Musketeers in North Hobart; finally getting round to trying the takeaway pastries from both Doux and BreadTop; and last but certainly not least a dinner to celebrate DorkyDad’s birthday at Pitzi.

Breaking through writer’s block: Not to get too meta by writing about writing – but I do spend so much time writing for work that sometimes I feel like I’ve forgotten how to write more freely and creatively. That was one of the reasons for starting these seasonal posts: I hoped they might help me get out of my own head and stop being self-conscious about who I was writing for. When I started DorkyMum is was very much just for fun, not for an audience.

At the end of June, I got frustrated by how many blog post ideas I had and how little time I had to write them. So, I wrote a post about that. Then I went on to write another four posts in two months, which is almost unheard of since my very earliest days. I’m sure it won’t last, but I’m going to enjoy it while it does.

Early signs of spring: As soon as we are past the solstice and the days start to lengthen a little, the earliest signs of spring start to appear in our neighbourhood. Buds turn to blossom, and by late August all the streets are full of colour. My Tasmanian friends are always careful to remind me that this is really only phoney-baloney fake spring, and that I shouldn’t put away my thermals quite yet. They are right of course; we often get a beautiful September and then a grotty October.

But still… even knowing that there will be more snow to fall on the summit of kunanyi, weeks if not months of a fire still required in the evenings, and the famous spring winds that will shake all that blossom from the branches. It brings me such delight to see the seasons turn, the cycle continue, the likely return of warmth and light and hope.