Joys of Winter

Glad you managed to have some outdoors time today, Ariadne - it has been a refreshingly splendid day after all the gloom and rain recently.

The routine of shutter closing
Is tiresome,
And necessary for warmth
But I hate to block out the night
Of loosely woven basketry
Made against the sky from bare twigged trees
And Japanese shadowed eucalyptus blowing
Against the dusty-cream-grey of a yellow washed sunset.

it is a beautiful day here, and I've just been into the garden (small, south facing, in Kent) for the first time for a few days. The roses think it's spring, and are making a determined effort - lots of fresh shoots! There's a fuchsia in a pot which hasn't yet lost its leaves, and it too is having a bash at flowering.

Meanwhile, close to me on a table, I was eyed beadily by the robin, who obviously thought I'd been neglecting my bird feeding duties. he only moved when I was right up to him. Lovely. (And a quick dose of Vit.D into the bargain!)

Just lovely, JessM

- when are you going to do a teeny profile ogm?

JessM..... lovely, you painted mind pictures for me!

mm lovely b. We have garlands of goldfinches. No super yet. I hope she gets a nice fat cheque from scot power and enjoys the story about the husband in the outhouse on her return to us.
Well my new voluntary role seems to have taken up most of today. But I did go for a run between blustery showers and felt surprisingly good. And was inspired, thus:

Legs, heart and lungs working together
Unfamiliar strength in my feet
As solitary crows sulk on damp, wind-tousled grass
I think of black and blue-black birds
Crows, inscrutable in sooty black
Blackbirds, perky and bright eyed
Jackdaws raucous, cheeky
Choughs tumbling in mid air play
Ravens soaring, pinioned
Or strutting, massive and hookbeaked
Rooks too, social and canny
Sidling up to cars in the services
Begging for sandwich crusts
One small memory:
Standing at the bedroom window
Not long before his heart gave up
A young man, a full stop.
Look daddy there’s a blackbird!
No it’s a jackdaw, he has a hood
Four year olds don’t grieve
But sometimes they grow up to look at birds
To have strong hearts
And tears come, better late than never

What a lovely thought- the garden 'carpeted with chaffinches'! I've seen quite a few in mine, but in the trees. Even here it has been a wild night. It takes a lot to wake me up but that roaring wind was enough. The big trees across the brook are still there, worse luck. They are getting so big that they cut off my sunlight!

We still have wind, but we also have
Blue sky!
And sunshine zapping through the house!
So nice after all the grey.
But even in the greyness yesterday,
In a storm lull
DD came rushing and said "Look!
The whole garden is moving!"
It was carpeted with chaffinches
Foraging in the grass.

Yes - me too.
Bloomin' weather. It's wild here again tonight so the hatches are battened yet again

baggy I am glad to hear both you and super are ok.

Pleased to hear she's ok and hope super is reconnected soon.

Just spoken to super. She's fine and so is the bloshy cat and all his friends, but she hasn't been reconnected yet after 36 hours!!! With the short daylight hours and awful weather just to help matters along, it's sometimes hard to find where the crux of the probelm is, whether it's trees on the line or the line tangled around a pole, or whatever.

I jolly well hope we'll get compensation from Scottish Power this time. We get power cuts every winter – a case of less expensive to bring in contractors from Merseyside and Wales to do repairs every year than update the system to cope with Scottish weather; gets harder to believe every year! – but if they are less than 24 hours I don't think they 'qualify' for compensation. Grrr. House lovely and warm now and LIGHT. With the stove we can keep warm (I got up a couple of times in the night to stoke it) but the darkness can be grim.

Wonder how super's doing? My travel barometer is beeping again.... another bout of low pressure and wind coming tonight.

My goodness, bagitha - that was some storm, and a wonderful portrait of all things bringing light and warmth amongst such force.

Yikes! Glad you are back with us. Do you get compensation from scottish power?
I managed to dry some clothes outdoors today. Feeling smug.

Yep, bang on, butty! Power back on after thrity hours without. Just had a shower in case it goes off again. Here were some offline thoughts:

Snow sticks to the gullies and rills of the hills
But the storm blows it off the round domes
In a wind strong enough to rip
Loose paint off an outside wall.
That's a new one, even for we
Who are used to the excesses of
Scottish winter weather,
Weather that makes you prepare
For regular and long power outages
With candles galore, rechargable lamps,
Camping stoves and wood piles.
Three kettles on the stove all day long
For warm washing and hot drinks.
Every now and then
That ferocious wind off the Atlantic
Blows a layer or two of cloud away
To reveal shining white topped cumuli
Sailing merrily above
Without a care in the world.
DH went out for batteries
And food that can be eaten cold.
Came back with stories of dinghies at the sailing club
Blown completely over the fence and over the road,
And beach boulders carried over the sea wall
And smashed onto the road.
Fallen trees aplenty.
Daylight waned from noon.

supernana and bagitha - I suspect you are both experiencing the results of the Joys of Winter without power - but you are both cheerfully robust so I expect you are making the best of it. Hope to see you back on line soon.

Just in too, from a brisk "constututional" round the block, where all that was visible were a few brave survivors in people's front gardens. If we had gone out an hour ago, we would have had chilly sunshine. As it was, it was just starting to rain as we locked the door so it was an umbrella walk into 45% rain.

Tomorrow it will be horizontal, so could have been worse, and if the rain had started five minutes earlier we would have been stagnating indoors.

Now waiting for kettle to boil.

Just went for a bracing walk - so lucky to be able to do a "country" walk without getting in the car. Saw some daffodils near the road that are about a week off blooming... there is a particularly early kind planted near the prison. But the temperature today is "seasonal" despite the sun.

bagitha and JessM

Woke to a white world this morning.
The hills, when I can see them,
Are a thickish white;
The garden is a thin white, slushy
With sleet, then snow, then rain
Then sleet again falling within an hour.
More wind on the way too
Says the Met Office
So charge up the lamps
And get ready to fry eggs on the wood stove
For dinner.
And I won't be sawing logs today.

Yes I had never seen that before! It was all over in less than a minute once they had completed the neck dance thing.

I hope you gather your strength before tackling those plum branches, bagitha,
and I also hope it's an electric chain saw you'll be using and not one of those frightening petrol ones!
Take care. x

What a delight (and surprise) to have seen the swans mating, Jess. I wonder if it's an auspicious sign on the first day of the new year .