Last week I received a Christmas present in the post, along with a very apologetic note from a friend. She had sent it well in advance in mid December, but come Christmas day it hadn’t arrived. Eventually we got to the bottom of the missing parcel when it was returned to her, and she sent it off again to me. After all this to-ing and fro-ing it’s no surprise that it was almost the end of January by the time it eventually reached me.

My friend was very apologetic, but it turned out to be one of the nicest gifts I received this year. Firstly because of course, a present is a present, and no one should ever need to apologise for giving you wonderful things. But secondly because it arrived in January, in the midst of what often feels like a very long, dark, miserable month.

It always feels as though January drags on forever, and I for one am not sorry to see the end of it. But that belated Christmas present brightened up the final week for me, because of its kindness and also the simple act of a treat being delivered through my door.

February is thankfully not going to drag on quite so long as the previous month, but still even though it is officially spring the cold, dark mornings and evenings will continue for a while. I think my chances of any more delayed Christmas presents are slim, but I have run with the idea and ordered a parcel from a local bookshop to be delivered in a couple of weeks. Now I have something to look forward to, and by the time it arrives there will be just a few more weeks to wait until spring really begins to blossom.

On that note, I spotted more than one clump of snowdrops on a walk over the weekend. A wonderful welcome to spring, and a taster of the good things to come.