Winter cometh

That's a glowing image of winter!

I can't be lyrical about today - freezing fog

Four jays,
Handsome birds and often noisy,
But today quietly eating rosehips
In the field copse
As I tucked into a rich, dark soup
And a thickly buttered, toasted slab
Of homemade bread.
Cold ankles
Now wrapped in alpaca warmers
And the stove lit.

Beautiful Jess.

Your urban wood - lovely Jess.

Multitudes of great and blue tits visit my bird feeders, but punctually at 9am every day, a large squirrel comes along and tries very hard to get at the suet balls in a container that I thought was probably inaccessible to squirrels. Persistent little devils, aren't they? And very hard to chase off!

Venturing alone into my urban wood
Oak mulched mud crunches under foot
Crows sulking in iced white trees
A few crisp oak leaves, lacy edged
Falling in still air
Dislodged by blue tits

Have you ever noticed that blue tits are perfectly camoflaged when they sit on greeny, licheny bare branches at the edge of a wood in sunlight?

WOW indeed granjura and broomsticks. Fabulous!

When it's cold and dark comes early, Winter does indeed gives us occasional gifts to enjoy.

Sounds lovely granjura. I can remember one year driving home over the moors and there was snow on all the peaks and mist in the hollows and the sun shining on it all. Wonderful.

jura, sounds lovely! Your snow makes our light sprinkling seem feeble!

Amazing today - on top of the 1m+ of powder snow and a fabulous hoar forst - -16C. The sun came out late morning - and it's been one of the most beautiful winter wonderland day ever WOW. Many winter days are like rehearsal for a concert - a bit of a pain and sometimes dull - then you have a magnificent show like today, and you know why you love the mountains and a 'proper' snowy winter.

WOW. Carol enjoyed her drive over.

Watching the bird feeder just outside the window as I type - a great spotted woodpecker and a bullfinch are competing for the glorious colours. Sharing with chaffinches, bramblings, green finches, sparrows and 5 species of tits. Sorry but will have to say it again - WOW

The wind blew two layers of fleece off the potted olive tree yesterday so I was washing frost off the leaves at 8am this morning as the sky was clear.

broom !

I think there are 15 trowels somewhere in my compost heap

Some of my garden tools may well still be somewhere outside - will be a long long time until I find them again. Over 1 metre of snow.

So heavy a frost it looks like snow. The pond is frozen over and Gary has left his trowel in the middle of the lawn!

And another 15cm = more or less half a foot (ignore pedants )- sun coming out now. Rain expected later in the week which will be a disaster + floods.

Lowest overnight temps so far here.
Beautiful crescent moon this morning
Flanked by Venus.
Last night the Milky Way was discernible above our house.
Stunning indeed!

Psst, jura, 30cm is actually a little less than a foot . We rarely get that much here at sea level though. Even 3cm is a lot for us. Happy snow-blowing!

A hoar frost this morning + sunshine - just stunning.

They say the snow is coming our way. But then, 'they' always say that, don't they. Last night, while we were in the cinema, the temperature dropped by 6 degrees and there was ice on all the cars.

Another 30cm overnight (that's a foot and a bit for you lot - OH our there shovelling and snowblowing - I have a bad cough so I have to rest

soop Good to read your beautiful verse again.

Can just visualise that sea and those mountains; and hear the wind.

Bags

Lively sea...pewter-grey waves
topped with creamy foam.
Steel grey mountains
topped with shimmering snow.
Busy, blustery wind
singing through the branches.
Rain drops tapping at the window.
Black cat -
snug in his basket, without a care in the world.

That's really nice, Bags. sounds beautiful.

Quite warm and sunny here. Amazing.