Joys of Winter

At last the countryside has turned its clock to winter
Bare trees, grass and sheep
Despite the mild air
And children playing out without their coats
Catkins out along the roadside.
Strode round Stowe
Admiring carefully crafted vistas
Temples, artful ruins and more sheep
In the lake cygnets feeding
Ridiculous with triangular sterns aloft
A pair of adults engaged in courtly dance
Heads bobbing together
Neck twining sinuously
They're not feeding
Look the swans are mating!
A first sighting for me on the first of the year.

bagitha ...a virtual (hug)

Don't worry about me wearing myself out, super. I'm quite simply unable to do that! Learned my limits a long time ago and stick to short bursts of activity punctuated with loads of rests.

bagitha darling, please don't wear yourself to a frazzle. Feet up, good book, and plenty of you-time.

Yesterday resisted an overwhelming tiredness
But went to bed early
And slept for eleven hours.
If there were fireworks I heard none,
But maybe there weren't
In the heavy rain.
This morning no rain so went outside
And picked up sticks
Blown off the silver birch in the hurricane.
Bundled them up with string
And hung them on a beam in the woodshed to dry.
Good for lighting fires, silver birch.
OH axed apart the plum tree that fell
In the same storm
And dragged the branches up the hill
For me to attack with a chain saw
Some time.
Not today though as
The rain is back.

I'd like to hope so, Annobel - they looked to make a great team!
Have a hopeful New Year.

Butternut - I like the sound of the Artful Dodger cat. Was he working in tandem with the 'urban warrior jay'?

I came to this thread looking for a bit of calm and succour - only to find tales of power cuts, gales, a bloshy cat gone walkabout and internet failure........but upon reading more found it. Lovely and thank you.

We found in London
an urban warrior jay
hip-hopping the pavements
and a slinking young white cat
with a smear of ginger on his back leg
Scenting the trash cans
Looking dead dodgy and
Quite obviously working for Fagin.....

bagitha HELLO! No power whatsoever for nigh on 20 hours for 800 homes in Kintyre. We were enjoying a very merry Wednesday evening with friends, when the lights went out. Lots of squeals of glee because it was guessed to be trick-playing-time...only it wasn't ...
The five-bar gate through which the guests arrived, had been slammed shut by the howling gale, making an exit rather awkward, since no-one could budge the bolt. A rowdy jam of vehicles cluttered the host's drive. Someone may have toppled into a ditch! Someone managed to get into the wrong car! Someone was heave-ho'd into a jeep [behind the wire mesh used to contain frisky hounds!] - all rather chaotic Naturally, I wasn't the certain someone
We were house-bound yesterday. Friendly neighbours contacted each other on their cell phones. We were offered all manner of assistance. Thanks to a wee camping stove, we had hot drinks, soup and such. Sat by the fireside in candle-light...very flattering! Watched the sea crashing on the shore and marvelled at the acrobatic ability of the sea-birds. Cat stayed put. He did however venture a few inches when food delivered to his apartment door.
By the way, I missed Gransnet something awful

Thanks, jess. We managed the warm bit as we have a wood stove, but the darkness was what got to me. We have re-chargable lamps and candles but even daylight is dark up here at the mo. We went out to Glasgow Panto yesterday which took most of the day. Nice and bright in the King's Theatre but perishing outside. Had left a couple of lights switched on so we could see our house had power again while we were driving up the other side of the loch on the way home. SO cheering!

Oh keep warm!

20-hour power cut. Neighbours down the hill who live on a 'street' — 4 hours. Neighbours a mile along the loch — 10 hours. How do Scottish Power do it? (Rhetorical question. They don't know either! )

Not quite hurricane force here, but the trees are now lashing ominously and the rain is horizontal. Brrrrrr!

Gally A hurricane-force wind is HOWLING outside our window. The sea is mountainous...far worse than the previous storm. Have a gathering of lively Scots to look forward to later.

yep. Gale force here with possible hurricane force gusts so I half expected the Asda van would get blown over before arriving this morning. Delivery arrived though and the poor driver had to slosh through puddles and horizontal rain between his van and our back door. Nice getting your groceries delivered when you don't want to go out!

super, Ahoy! Call home in at GN and let us know you haven't been blown away!

..... if your internet connection is working

Nasty gusts whooshing down the Tay estuary so I'm not venturing out. Enjoying the Panto - excellent seat with no-one obscuring my view!

Super and Baggy (and any other GN's suffering the wind!) I hope you have battened down the hatches? It's pretty awful over here on the East so I can imagine it's even worse over on your side! It's a day for indoors, soup and silly games! Take care

Lovely! bagitha

The dreaded season to be jolly
Slipped warily into our home
On tippy-toes with down-cast eyes
Lest I bar the door and turn the key
With shouts of bah! and humbug!
The shrill telephone called often -
Well-loved voices skipped across the miles
And dancing through the wires
Urged ever widening smiles to creep from ear to ear.
Loneliness was banished
By sparks of hearty laughter
Fanned by the healing power of family love.

What a difference a few hundred miles of latitude make, eh jess? Nothing showing up here yet though I'm keeping a lookout for snowdrop leaves.

A bluetit  has just done a somersault twirl
Around a silver birch twig
In search of goodies to eat.
The chickens did not appreciate
The bold chaffinch trying to snatch
A shred or two of their cheese
And put a stop to his boldness
And to him!
Nature's cold survival instincts.
Meanwhile, in the house,
I melted some chimney cement onto a chopping board –
Or was it chopping board onto cement? –
At any rate it is now a permanent
Memory mark,
Stuck fast to that board,
To remind me of Christmas 2011.

Over the last 2 days I have seen
The first hazel catkin breaking ranks
Winter heliotrope - lovely scent
Mahonia opening its yellow spikes for business.

baggy Very atmospheric. Good to know that you are recovering.

Bloshy cat
Home at last...
Many a mile
He will have wandered
Since he last dined
On the terrace.
I pretended not to care
That his bed
Remained unruffled -
No need to shake and straighten
Fleeces scattered to the wind.
No point in washing bowls
Or making sure
That drinking water
Was crystal clear.
After all
He wasn't there
And ten to a penny
He didn't care.
My vigil ended late last night.
The security light flickered
And along the path
A creature sauntered.
Bedraggled and mud-splattered
Howling for attention.
He reached the door -
I dashed out and bearing food
Told him he was special.
He stared - as cats do
Utterly bemused
As if to say in cat-speak
Umm! Cut the idle chat!
I'm fully aware of that.

Wood pigeons riffling through ivy
On a tall and slender ash;
Jays, with their white flashing,
Darting and dashing
Tree to tree;
Chickens knocking, peck, peck
On the door for food;
And the smell of new-baked
Gingerbread
For a magical midwinter
Child's sweetie house.

JessM Three big cheers from Kintyre!

Just went for a run and
1. There is an oak tree still hanging onto its leaves in the lee of the wood. I notice that it was cut down at some stage and has re-grown. This makes trees live longer apparently.
2. The blackthorn looking very black and thorny. It has three seasons, summer, green, nondescript, merging into the hedgerow. Upstaged by dog rose and honeysuckle. Next the fruit, plump and blue black as the leaves yellow and drop. Tempting little wild plums but so so sour. Then the bare black twigs, showing off their tracery of lichens. At last, on the bare thorn a creamy drift appears like a million droplets of milk. My favourite herald of spring.
3. Took Kirsty McColl with me. Hell did she make a difference! A spring in my legs and a PB. I'm beginning to enjoy this at last after 7 months of practice. Made sure i crossed the finishing line with her and Sean singing the best Christmas hit of all time (Fairy Tale of New York). What a wonderful effect music can have on us. I don't believe in an afterlife but if there is one, Kirsty (and Sean) I wish you peace, lots of craic and safe places to swim.

Done. I used to work for the water industry which is where the charity originated I think. Without water and sanitation what hope for higher needs.