Joys of Winter

supernana - a beautifully serene scene.

Waving's a Lancashire thing too, super, and I love it. Also love your word painting.

I looked up into the sky this evening,
When closing the shutters
And was struck by the cloud scape
- a Grey Plover's wing
Diagonally angled against
A smoky-gold, purple wedge of sky
Split with the palest pink I'd ever seen
And thought of strength and delicacy,
And how nature holds both so well.

It's been a "gentle little day" here (as the weatherman says).

Or it was until I knocked my mug of tea over, over the kitchen work surface, cupboards, floor, cookery books, and husbands's new diary!

I will go and clear it all up in a minute.

Really I will.

I will try and find a poem about it, but can't promise anything.

It always amazes me how much liquid there is in a mug of tea! But apart from that, hope you've had the weatherman's gentle little day.

Thank you Butternut. I have.

Some of you obviously live in beautiful places. But I am lucky to live on the edge of the suburbs. OK here goes:

I found some PE teacher trousers
With zips in the legs
And a sky blue tee
New trainers and I, on our third date
Met by saturated air and trees
Parkside birches, shrugging off their glittering tears
Oak, still cloaked in tattered green gold brown
Hornbeam, raising its torch aloft
Ash, stripped to the grey blotched bone
The wood's leafmould paths rise enticingly
Hawthorn berries damp and darkening
Bare blackthorn twigs, green lichen, fat blue sloes
And my legs, willingly up the slopes

Delightful, JessM.

Out jogging?

Yup, after 6 months it is beginning to be enjoyable... some days at least.

Such lovely word pictures since I last paid a visit

The islands are sheltering behind a curtain of mist
From a brisk rain-heavy wind.
The sea is gun-metal grey
Over which the playful waves scurry.
Gulls, like kites, cling to the air -
Dipping and diving without fear of falling
To the sharp-stoned beach way below.
And then there are rock-pools
Deep, dark and mysterious.
If only our wee man -
Cocooned in the concrete city
Could fly on the wind -
How he would relish
An hour in this magical place...

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! He would indeed! I still have the pile of 'treasure' that my wee man brought up from our pebbly, musselly beach when he was here last month.

super, do you know the storybook Wet pebbles under our feet by Manya Stojic? You and the wee man would love it.

bagitha I shall do my utmost to purchase the book for Torben. It sounds delightful.
From time to time I write short stories in which wee man and I go on adventures. I like to bring the local wild-life into the tales. He has a special box in which his Mummy stores the stories for when he can understand and hopefully, enjoy them.

That was lovely,supernana - just lovely.

Our woodpile is stacked at last
Full of browns, greens and dusty creams
which match this day of mists,
So our log basket's fat and full
...for a while.

I made a cake - Mam's Boiling Brooney
With cardamom seeds, walnuts
cinnamon and raisins
Full of spiced browns, and deep sepia sugar
For the top.
I ate it sliced with a spread of butter
By the fire.

Green finches, Goldfinches, Bluetits & a very stroppy Robin. Two very interested pussycats, that my hubby chased off with water pistol! They always move too quick for him. Very funny!

It has been a beautiful, crisp late autumn day - robin on the doorstep again, nagging me, and I've been laughing at the starlings trying desperately to peck at the swinging half coconuts. And 35 miles from London!

I love a stroppy robin and we had one after the cake crumbs!

They are a delight to watch each day aren't they? The birds are really stocking up for winter, we seem to be re-filling the seed containers every few days. There are lots of lovely berries on the hedges everywhere too, so I hope we are not going to have too hard a winter. Looking forward to Spring!

Oh, Butternut I can almost smell that cake! What a lovely picture you draw.

Thanks Annobel - it is very yummy!

The redpolls are back in force! Flock of about thirty today, whizzing between the silver birch (they go for the seeds in the samara (just looked that up cos I didn't know the name of the fruit)) and a spruce tree. Lovely little birds!

Lucky bunny - we don't get them here which is a pity because they're so delightful - especially when fluffed-up.