F2

With depressingly low light levels my eyes 

have been set  permanently to wide aperture

with resultant fuzzy focus.

Today the merest glimmer of sunshine

sharpened me up no end.

This was all it took.

From this

to this.

It still looks more like moonlight though.

News

new soup

new pan

new sheets

new snow

new header

thanks to 

Molly @ 

A Foothill Companion
w.i.p

When all else fails

post a sweet squirrel photo,

and wait for things to take a turn for the better.

Keeping track

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(a) collared dove, (b) wood pigeon, (c) fox and (d) cat
would be my best guess
but I'm no Ray Mears.

What a difference

a year makes.

Early January 2009 - Tete à Tete in flower

in one of our old butler sinks.

It hardly seems possible.

Do hope the sun comes out tomorrow.

Skyscape

unusual - but not as alarming as this one.


I haven't been out today and with more snow forecast
am glued to the windows looking for
Signs and Portents.

Maybe I should have been a meteorologist.

The Way Forward ?

The washing machine has packed up.

It is at times like this

(and with a £95 + parts call out fee being demanded)

that I regret the passing of the washboard and mangle.

This dedicated laundry room looks perfect.

The only thing I'd miss would be the radio.


Well who am I kidding?
The man has arrived and is armed with a new motor.
Thank heavens.

Little bird

visitors.

This song has haunted me from childhood. The version I knew was by Ann Stephens.

 This one is Gracie Fields.

Enjoying the Snow

from my trusty guide Something to Do.

Toboganning

For tobogganing you need wintry weather, snow, a slope and a sledge.

Or if you like, you can use a tray.

They then give comprehensive instructions for building a sledge. 
As well as the timber you'll need 7 feet of strip steel and some 
beeswax to speed up the runners. 
(Nothing in this book is for the faint-hearted.)

Eskimoes

(Not very p.c I know...it was published in 1966)

Eskimoes are contented people, very good-natured and generous to visitors. They have enormous appetites and two Eskimoes sitting down together can eat a whole raw seal.

They believe that if you scold a child his ears will grow too large, so they never punish their children, but pet them instead. The children grow up to be very kind and affectionate. They have a very complicated language, and use one word where we would use a whole sentence.

IGDLORSSUALIORTUGSSARSIUMAVOQ is Eskimo for 

'He wants to find someone to build him a house.'

A skilled Eskimoe takes less than three hours to build a snowhouse 
for his family. 

He covers the inside wall with skins and makes the bed from a shelf of packed snow

 Followed by a set of instructions for building an igloo.

Snowballs

This is surprisingly specific and involves choosing a Prisoner who goes away leaving clear tracks in the snow. The Prisoner has the count of one hundred to arm himself with as many snowballs as possible, and then to hide 

at some vantage point from where he can bombard his pursuers.

There are rules about what the pursuers are allowed to do while trying to capture him.

Nowadays snowball fights are the subject of serious debate in the media.

 Calvin and Hobbes There's Treasure Everywhere by Bill Watterson

A Winter Picnic

...if it is far away, you will have to go by bus or car or bike, or train (by pony if you are very lucky) and take with you the food and drink and some dry sticks and paper to start the bonfire.

 I have just attempted what should have been a ten minute journey to collect my son from a friend's house tonight with barely an inch of snow on the ground and had to turn back after half an hour having got no further than the end of my road.


We're just not made the same way anymore.

Cold enough for you?

The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning for us soft southerners - 

we can expect to see heavy snow, with strong winds. 

It will be bitterly cold with a severe frost tonight.

The River Thames froze nine times 

between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Dawk's Newsletter of January 14th, 1716, 
describes that winter's frost.

The Thames seems now a solid rock of ice, and booths for the sale of brandy, wine, ale and other exhilarating liquors, have been for sometime fixed thereon; but now it is in a manner like a town: thousands of people cross it, and with wonder view the mountainous heaps of water, that now lie congealed into ice. On Thursday, a great cook's shop was erected, and gentlemen went as frequently to dine there, as at any ordinary. Once over Westminster, Printing-presses are kept upon ice, where many persons have their names printed, to transmit the wonders of the season to posterity. Coaches, waggons, carts etc. were driven on it; and an enthusiastic preacher held forth to a motley congregation on the mighty waters with a zeal fiery enough to have thawed himself through the ice, had it been susceptible to religious warmth. This, with other pastimes and diversions, attracted the attention of many of the nobility, 

and brought the Prince of Wales to visit the Frost Fair.

Thomas Wyke - Thames Frost Fair

Now that's what I call cold

because I'm old enough to remember the winter of 1963.

Sun spots

We have lived in our house for about 17 years.

It sits on a South East /North West axis.

The front of the house though south facing, is shaded by tall trees, 

the back is more open but the sun arcs along the western boundary 

of the garden for most of the year 

and rarely penetrates far into the house

because unfortunately the rooms on that side are, shall we say, 'utilitarian'.

But just once in a while, the sun strikes the house in a new and extraordinary manner.

It takes a felicitous combination of season, time of day, weather condition and

my deliberate observation to see this.

It has taken 17 years for me to notice what happened yesterday.

The sun was visible at a much lower elevation than usual,

directly opposite the house 

in a gap between terraced houses, 

made by a side road.

One tree was resplendent 

for 18 minutes.

This is its moment in the sun.

I might never see it again.

Milly-Molly-Mandy goes to a Party*

(if you are allergic to whimsy please pass)

Milly-Molly-Mandy had not been to a real party for a long time 
so she was very pleased and interested when Mother said,

'Well, Milly-Molly-Mandy, you must have a proper new dress 
for a party like this. 
We must think what we can do.'

Mother went to the big wardrobe and rummaged in her bottom drawer 
until she found a most beautiful white silk scarf, 
which she had worn when she was married to Father, 
and it was just wide enough to be made into a party frock for Milly-Molly-Mandy.

Then Grandma brought out of her best handkerchief box 
a most beautiful lace handkerchief which would just cut
 into a little collar for the neck of the party frock. 

Aunty brought out some most beautiful pink ribbon, 
all smelling of lavender - just enough to make a sash for the party frock.

Father bought her the most beautiful little pair of red shoes.

Grandpa gave her the most beautiful little coral necklace.

Uncle pretended he had lost his handkerchief and 
pulled out of his pocket 

the most beautiful little handkerchief with a pink border.

Lucille had an invitation to a party.

She had not seen some of these friends for over twenty years.

The invitation said please wear vintage black with a flash of red.

She wanted to go very much but oh dear - 

she had no vintage black unless you counted her 
old black gym T-shirt.

Her friend Maddy said,

'You can have my black party dress and my black cashmere jumper.'

Her friend Marian said,

'You can have my long black skirt with fringing.'

Her friend Rachael, said,

'You can have my black silk scarf.' 

And this was very kind of all of them.

But Lucille thought it might be a good idea to have her own l.b.d

if at all possible, so she went shopping on a well known internet 
auction site and 'won' this:

It was black wool crepe. It was 1950s vintage. And it fitted.
It was a pity that one of the buttons was missing.

She wore it with a twenty year old Liberty Tana lawn blouse
 which she found at the back of the big wardrobe.
And then she pinned on the most beautiful little brooch
where the button should have been,

because nothing flashes like diamonds
and rubies are red.

*Joyce Lankester Brisley 1928

2

in the garden

An old favourite walk

revisited

The deck of cards

I was going to set up a review of the year in pictures,

optimistically thinking I could quickly choose twelve photos 

to represent each month of 2009.

One hundred and forty two carefully considered selections later, 
I had only reached June.

As I sit here in the early encroaching darkness

I am encouraged by the long, light-filled days,

fascinated by the flowers, fruits, fields, frogs, fires, markets, music,

 trees, travels, birds, badges, buildings, books, birthdays, blossom, 

cakes, cows, clouds, reflections, rainbows, soups, sons, sunrises and sunsets.

I am refreshed by the sea, snow, streams, parks, people, parties.

I am replenished by the food, feasting and foraging.

I had underestimated all the walking, stretching, running, 
swimming, swinging, 
climbing, driving, flying, cycling.

Spring Summer Autumn and Winter

all captured, all compressed.

I've fanned them out

like a pack of cards.

And scooped them closed again.

Pick a number, any number.

1710

It's the 19th of March.

 06:32:2009.

Sunrise from our bedroom window.

I'm happy with that.
Thank you.

Sweet no things

As we leave behind us the season of excess

and are taken once more by the gentle hands

of Reason and Restraint,

we talk earnestly of decluttering and simplifying our lives.

This is a sincere goal but a difficult one to attain.

Wanting is like an itch. 

Scratching is irresistible but only makes the itch worse.

I think I may have found a soothing balm for our acquisitive yearnings.

Suppress that urge with virtual possessions.

They are free.

They are the loveliest things.

And they never need dusting.

Here is my first new no thing,

I found it in Beth Chatto's Garden Notebook.

...a little pewter jug filled with snowdrops...

In the warmth of the room the snow-white petals have opened over prim,

closely-folded petals,

each bearing a green heart-shaped mark

at the tip.

Une petite soirée chez nous

Watching this.

We know how to party.

Busy going nowhere

The birds have been wonderfully bold this last week since their usual hunting grounds have been buried in snow. The Blackbirds and Thrushes are usually rather shy, and fly away at the approach of anyone, but now, they only hop away to a little distance and sit watching with their bright eyes, from beneath the friendly shelter of a bush, waiting to go back to their feast of crumbs. The Tits and the Robins and Sparrows scarcely take any notice of one. I have noticed chaffinches feeding among the other birds the last few days, they seldom come to feed.

We too have had chaffinches at the feeders. A first.

I rather like this vintage bird feeding station.

Although she* says,
I don't think the Robins really care for cocoa-nut; but they don't like to see the Tits enjoying anything, without claiming a share.


from *Edith Holden's Country Diary of an Edwardian  Lady

I must add a cocoa-nut to my shopping list 
just for the sheer pleasure of spelling it this way.