Joys of Winter

Well, it has warmed up to 3.1° now so I'm off out to enjoy some cold sunshine and fresh air. Will puff on the Ventolin first for good measure. Bugger the asthma! I'd rather have it and do stuff I enjoy than sit around and get depressed by being a good girl. It's bugger the asthma anyway, because if cold air and spores don't get me, common cold viruses will (do anyway), so TCHA! Can't win with asthma, so fight on is my attitude.

Bagitha compost fence making NOT good for asthma, think of ALL the mould spores in and around the rotting veg. Huffing and puffing super cold air is another No No! Bad girl!!!

Well, as DD explained it to me, you hammer some posts (sticks) into the ground in two rows about a foot apart, or whatever's required by your filler. The sticks are a similar distance apart in each row and staggered with the other row. You follow? Then you line up branches and other dead stuff in between them, just lying the stuff down to fill the space. Gradually you build up a screen. Gradually it all rots down naturally. So it's a kind of temporary fence made of stuff you would be rotting down or burning anyway.

You can also use two rows of wire fencing and stuff (verb) stuff (noun) (!) between them for the same effect.

My plan is to make a barrier to stop another pile of compost from tumbling down the hill (or getting kicked down by chickens).

There are pics if you google "compost fence".

Chest is back to usual niggle, thanks, but it wouldn't do to give in to it completely. I've done enough of that already. I just have to be prepared to collapse for a bit afterwards. Asthma info that says it needn't stop you doing stuff is NOT TRUE!

Please explain Bagitha we are intriguededde cant spell it...

I've seen them bagitha and they're such a great idea. Hope you are feeling so much better today and your asthma doesn't make a come-back!

Compost fences?

DD1 has been making compost fences in Cheshire with the local Wildlife Trust. I'm going to start making one today if the weather holds. It will involve a lot of tramping up the hill with bundles of small branches I've cut off hedges recently – the top of our garden is ten or more metres higher up the hill than the bottom. Don't need jogging or gym to keep fit here!

That's a lovely little poem, Butter. I won't bother you with the spelling! I know what you mean. It was lovely to stagger down the garden today and smell the spring coming, though tonight I can smell frost.

Oh you are on form, both.

The sky here at 4.30 was a breathtaking red one.

Supernana..... lovely, evocative, uplifting at this grey time of year!

Some of us are resting
from asthma, labryn-something-can't spell it,
cloudy eyes and sinusitis
and still manage
to look and see
and feel and touch and hear
many joys of winter.



Everyone get well soon........!

I'll second that annobel.

Every spring when my sour cherries are in flower, sparrows and tits (mainly) spend hours picking off and flicking away the blossom. I suspect they're after insects or whatever nectar is left behind!

You're both so talented and living in such inspiring places too.

bagitha just beautiful...

The smoky grey islands
peer from behind a veil of gauze.
The ferry carves a deep white wake
into the teal green sea.
Glossy black cormorants
stand upon the rocks -
wings outstretched
slender necks craning skyward.
Watery sunlight
filters through the bare branches
comforting the tight buds
with a solemn promise
of things to come.

The night winds cleared away the clouds
and gave us a tricolour dawn
of gold, turquoise and deep blue
before a flaming sun rose
and washed into my kitchen
an orange flush, with a bit of a ruby flush
through DD's blackcurrant juice.
I've been out with my hedging tools
and trimmed the Golden Bush
so it can thicken and thrive
for the sparrows that squat
in house martin nests all winter
and use it for a take off.

A lovely picture, Butter. Talking of Japonica, I noticed that the one climbing up my friend's house was in flower yesterday and it still has some of last year's fruit on it.
Has anyone else noticed birds eating the flowers on the winter flowering Viburnum Bodnantense? Mine was looking ragged and pathetic and I noticed birds - I think they were bluetits - nipping the flowers, probably looking for insects, I imagine.

Teenage owls! What a great image - not yet wise. Butternut

Butternut for a lovely word picture.

Lucky you, jess! I've never seen a shoveller.

Love your calm picture, butty. Hope the day remained so.

More strong wind predicted for us tonight.

The male Shovelers are such dandies, aren't they!

OH that does sound calm!
My lake today was very different. Wherever there was a pair of swans feeding in open water they had a crowd of ducks and gulls jostllng round, presumably hoping the swans would stir up something edible from the sediment. A hungry day for them i think. Spotted a pair of shovelers!

Dawn came slowly
while the moon stayed awhile,
looking clouded and washed out
and the teenage owls sat
on the fancy chimney stack
on the roof scape
just behind my wall,
hunched and fluffed.
A quiet beginning
to a day of calm reflection,
and the cutting of japonica branches
to put in clear water
in a glass jug
for the kitchen table
and wondering if the buds
will turn to blossom in a week or two.

I am pleased, Annobel, and you must be feeling a bit better because you haven't lost your sense of humour!

You were delicious, Butter, even though my hand slipped with the cumin.

Well, everyone always tries to make soup out of me......