Winter Layers

In Karen Dudley's house, winter means cosy dinners starring seasonal vegetables given much the same treatment as her cold-weather wardrobe

- By Karen Dudley. Illustration by Tayla De Beer

For all the summer joys of sand between toes and balmy evenings, the delights of sea swims, sunkissed skin and gardens bursting with blooms, winter is my favourite season.

It gives us permission to be lazy. The weather is inclement. Let’s stay home, build a fire and play a game (my family’s current favourite is Codenames). Winter gives us time to cook. It’s also a great excuse to cuddle. We yield to simplicity, to the season of restoration and withdrawal.

But my true confession is this: in winter I get to express myself as I layer up my wardrobe. Oh, let the cold come! There’s that rare window in a Cape winter when we pretend to be Europeans, wrapping a cashmere scarf around our necks, bundling up in mohair and wool and striding out, booted or brogued onto an (almost) icy street. Dressing this way is joyful self-expression. Coloured tights, hats, mittens. A colour-block party!