Joys of Winter

I meant 'just' like...

Your blanket (or 'brangkink', as DD3 use to call them) sounds lovely, butty. DD2 challenged herself to knit a blanket in squares. Not sure why except to prove that she could, perhaps because DD1 is a fantastic knitter. However, she couldn't face sewing the squares together. DD1 is going to join them for her in some fancy way she found on ravelry.com.

Butternut

Long ago, my mother knitted a pair of socks for my father. She "got lost at the rounded toe-end" and had to sew the top to the bottom - very clumsily. Father never wore them on his feet. They did however make decent mittens with which to polish the car! I started a scarf in 1971. Kept on knitting because I couldn't get the hang of casting off. By the time I had mastered the art, circa late 1972, the scarf was nigh on ten feet long and had cost a small fortune in wool. Still have it. Happy memories!

Today
The weather's moody -
Towering clouds
That seem to frown
Upon a sullen sea.
Rain like daggers
Pierce the sodden ground
To which ancient tree roots
Cling and clutch with gnarled fingers.
And then...
Nature paints a patch of blue
Mellowing the dark and brooding sea
Wave-crests spark with threads of sunlight
That weaves magic through bare branches -
All framed by a fleeting
Brilliant rainbow...

Same here, super.

baggy Rainbow disappears in a trice. Big bolshy clouds scudding across the sky. Cat ambles into his apartment. Another deluge about to kick off. Beautiful bonny Scotia!

Aye! Same again!

Mother nature can be a contrary old thing, can't she! You captured her so well, supernana

You make us see your vision, super. Do you mean 'bloshy' clouds?

Annobel Naturally! Bloshy is my favourite in-word...

I woke-up feeling grey-blue this morning
And it's too misty-drizzly-wet to walk.
So I took my hot mug of black coffee
For a spin around the garden.
The Liquid Amber now has a pretty skirt
of it's fallen leaves
although still stoically holding on to some.
The summer dusty-grey of the Olive
is now fresh and brightly washed
standing above my white rust riddled iron cockerel
which is too heavy to move.
Brilliant green grass
An empty red pot
and the dying-yellow wisteria leaves drip and drop
outside the kitchen door.
Indoors to a warm and steamy kitchen
and my first smile of the day.

Butternut - lovely! I picked up the 'stillness' of your garden. Hope you have many more smiles today.

Very thoughtful of you, gm - thank you.

Oh, butty! I want to be there again!! I can see it in my mind's eye. That feeling of wanting to be there and touch it all reminds me of a time when we were on a visit to GPs in Dundee from Oxfordshire. We had a wee trip to the castle at St Andrews and looking down at the sea we replied to DD1's hankerings to "see the sea" with: There it is!

No! no! she cried, I want to touch it!

Children so love to 'see' things with their hands.

Butternut Your words are capivating. bagitha Perfect!

I've been wrapping
A special storybook
For a special Wee Man
And creating a special
Greetings card
To enclose therein.
Across the miles
The gift will travel
Through Scotland's
Vast and captivating landscape
Of mountain
Moor and lochs -
Across the border
Onward and downward
Deep into another land
Until it reaches the bustling colourful
City in which he lives.
Will his eyes shine?
Will his smile spread?
Will he understand
As he opens the special gift -
That it contains my very special love?

super, I'm glad! . And I love your 'sending' too.

What could be better than this special 'sending', super. A lucky wee man.

A delightful memory, bagitha

I've often been told my garden is a tranquil place, but there are times it needs children racing around to let it dance a bit!

The first real sign of winter here in Cheshire. When I drew the curtains, I was surprised to see snow on the shed roof and other hard surfaces, though by that time it was raining. So are we dreaming of a white Christmas? Hope not, last year was bad enough.

I've got snow on the garden bench but it's disappearing in the rain. I hope we don't have the ice we had last year - it's hard work walking the dog first thing in the morning and trying to stay upright!

Snow right down to sea level here, including on the beaches, so a crunchy walk to school this morning. DD said we need to get our winter claws out (crampons). She's right.

bagitha "winter claws" love it!

On the long and winding road to
Campbeltown
Ebony Mountains to the right
With shimmering diamond-strewn tops.
Emerald sea pounding the shore's
Sculptured agate rocks.
To the left a narrow ribbon of turquoise sky -
From which the pearly winter sun
Lights amber gorse and
Garnet berries clustering between
Polished jade green holly leaves.
Ahead - beneath a blanket dark as pitch -
Campbeltown...
One more jewel in
Kintyre's treasure-box.

Nice!
Not really looking wintry here - one of the neighbours has a hollyhock in full bloom!
In my garden are blooming: fuschias, roses, a few odd scabious and nigella, one chive flower and there is one of those hairy poppies bursting a bud. Not to mention a pale yellow wallflower in full bloom and my winter jasmine...
No longer sure what is early and what is late.
But we did have a sharp frost last night. Although the garden, with houses all around, is the opposite of a frost pocket, whatever that is. A warmish pocket. Strange to think that this time last year we were up to our oxters in snow. Well knees anyway.

I think it's called an urban heat island.