'Bringing colour into your life or, 'Cheering up a dreary May'

Either title to this post could do really. As I write this...

• Almost every day in May so far has required jumpers and raincoats. I have only legitimately worn sunglasses once, other than when we decamped to Southwold for the weekend.
• No ice lollies or ice creams have been ingested. No hosepipes have been played with or even - distant memories - banned. The water pistols lay idle and dirty from a winter on the ground.
• There have been no weekend trips to farms, gardens or up hills. Weekends have faded away in errands and to-do lists, and quiet moments with the paper (yes, our kids are old enough to do that now!) while rain tickles the outside of our windows like reminders from the transgressive imp that is winter. 'Yes, I'm still here' it says. We don't bother to tell it to go away any more. It never listens.
• And today, the one day with no rain and a touch of warmth in the fleeting moments of blue sky, we've been mostly holed up indoors while the youngest fights, and loses, a battle with a nasty bug that has seen repeated sickness in the night, and wearing a wooly hat indoors when the shivers set in. He's such a listless little love, and my heart aches for him.

So I'm bringing a little colour back. Every bright and brash piece of clothing will be getting an airing. If it pairs with another for a greater slap of colour, then great. Yes, I will be wearing that tomato red sweater with that fushia top and, no, it's not warm enough for just one or the other.

And everything we do will have a crashing of colour in it too. Rainbow brights for thank you letters (that's the Tiny One making a sliver of an appearance down there, in his happier, healthier days). Every vibrancy we can find in the vegetable kingdom to grace our plates. Fabrics sewn together to make wild coloured cushions. Flowers gathered from the wayside to make they gayest, most carefree of posies. Yes, I'm saying yah boo sucks to this damp squib of a May.