The fun and festivities from Christmas and New Year's Eve already feel like just a memory as we try and avoid the January blues - so let's revisit our must-read Nub News columnist Sparky and his take on reasons to be cheerful in the new year.

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The first month of the year has traditionally had a bad rap, I think. And for those of us of a certain age this less-than-positive perception certainly wasn't helped by the rather downbeat lyric of Welsh band Pilot's 1975 number one hit, 'January', which you're probably singing to yourself right now. Sorry about that.

I am sure that I am not alone in confessing to having less than positive thoughts about this month myself when I was a bit younger.

After all, from this point in the calendar the celebrations of Christmas past and Christmas future both seem like a lifetime away, as do the joys of spring and summer. And everything else, come to think of it. I could continue with this miserable litany, but I think we get the point.

But I am pleased to say that the negativity of youth has now long gone, and I am now quite the fan of this, the month of Janus- the Roman god of new beginnings (oh, and doorways, too, apparently).

What lay behind this change of heart, I hear you ask? Well, mainly the gradual realisation that as you get older you simply can't afford to write-off a whole month by simply choosing to be glum.

And by also learning to be simply more thankful for this first month of the year as we definitely can't move into spring without it.

As a wise person once observed: 'you can't have a Friday without a Monday'. Well, that's enough of the philosophy; a more important question is 'what does one do with this new spirit of positivity?' In my case the answer was simple: get outside.

So this year I'm going to take even more opportunities to see the natural wonders of January close-up and in person. And if I do, I can be guaranteed one thing: the month I say goodbye to will be very different from the month I welcomed in only a week ago, and I will have seen it change.

I realise that this may not be possible for everybody, but if you can the benefits are varied, personal and undoubted: you can give your senses a thorough workout; one can escape the conveyor belt of grim news, albeit briefly: You can walk-off the effects of too much plum pudding and enforced inactivity and finally, according to the experts, our mental health may also improve. That's quite a list. Oh, and best of all, it's fun. Even when it's cold and muddy. And oh boy, is it muddy.

On January 1, in Hitchin, the sun rose at 809am and limped to an early bedtime at 4pm, giving us just under eight measly hours of daylight. Or to put it another way, for two thirds of the day- some 16 hours- we were mainly fumbling around in the dark.

But here comes the first of the good news- on the last day of January the sun jumps out of bed at a sprightly 742am and gives us over an hour's extra daylight when compared to New Year's Day, finally retiring at 447pm.

This is something we will all notice. And even as I write this at 4pm in early January the quality of light is already different to just a week ago. However, before we get too excited, this irreversible lightening of the gloom doesn't mean that we will all be donning T-shirts any time soon. Warmer temperatures will eventually follow, but we are still much more likely to get snow in Hitchin in January, February, March and even Easter than we are at Christmas, so we are not out of the winter woods yet, I'm afraid.

Such weather can have a stark beauty and the low sun and freezing clouds over the Icknield Way near Lilley on Thursday was simply beautiful, if not a tad chilly. All things must pass, even the cold, and you can be sure that Mother Nature is still busy pressing on with rebirth and regeneration and the medium term weather forecast suggests a welcome return to average January temperatures by the end of next week.

January brings changes in nature

In the meantime evidence of the changes in nature are all around and the clues are just waiting to be found and enjoyed and you shouldn't have to wander too far.

For those of us lucky to have gardens, or even window boxes, you can already see snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils sticking their heads above the surface, with the former flowering in a matter of days in some cases.

There has even been reports of daffs coming into bloom on the news, but I've yet to see this myself. Further afield, I managed to get my own senses working overtime earlier this week by getting down deep on my haunches in Preston's Wain Wood.

After having muttered something to a startled dog walker and clearing away some leaf litter, I was rewarded almost instantly by the uncovering of the tender green points of tiny bluebell plants, already preparing themselves to thrill lucky visitors in late April and May. If the muntjac deer don't eat them first, of course.

On Wednesday I treated myself to a walk through the deer park at Kings Walden. If you don't know this place then you must visit, for it is home to scores of English Oaks - a veritable 'oak grove', as such a collection is called. And every tree that I could check was budding, which is great to see. But the resultant first flush of tender green oak leaves in April is often totally decimated by hungry bugs, including the caterpillar of the hairstreak butterfly.

So the clever and wise oak has come up with a plan: a second set of new leaves in early summer called a 'Lammas growth'. And I hope to be there, watching this magical event unfold.

There's lots of other wonderful things going on at the moment, too, some of which we can look at in more detail as the winter moves inexorably into spring. And these changes are obviously not just limited to the ground: avian highlights include the return of visiting fieldfares and redwings, here briefly to enjoy our comparatively balmy climate and numerous hedgerow berries. I've seen scores of red kites, again, recently, with many in full voice, their eery whistling calls carrying for miles.

Closer to home our garden birds are also starting to get noisier as they prepare for spring and practise their vocal lines for the mighty dawn chorus in just a few months' time.

So despite the obvious desperate challenges that we currently face, the world continues to turn, and we can- if we wish - choose to change our own attitude towards January, the 'gateway to spring', as I have now personally rebranded it.

Enjoy and a happy new year to you all.

Sparky