I buy the midwinter bit as it is totally dark out at 16.09 but when we say bleak it makes me think snow and freezing with maybe a wind howling across the open spaces between the back of the cottage and the forest beyond. Honest folk are sat around the hearth with only a couple of candles to accompany the dancing glow of the wood fire.
Reality is constant perpendicular rain and a flooded path between the shed and the house. The vertical rain bit relates to the relative lack of wind. It’s just a straight up dank day.
This is the time of the midwinter festival. In my 59 years on the planet the real winter hasn’t rocked up until January and February. I watched a repeat on iPlayer last night. A documentary on Medieval Christmas where all 12 nights involved a celebration, for those who could afford it. Not sure how they kept the pace up.
I am cosy enough on this day. The two others in the shed are sat there quietly doing their thing.