4 snowy days in lockdown 3

How our world changes when it becomes winter white .

There were flurries of snow as we walked the dogs across the fields on Saturday morning, followed by sleet which washed away the slight, snowy traces. 

On Sunday morning, this was the scene from the dining room  - about three inches of snow enveloping the garden in icy white clothing.  

My husband walked the dogs early that morning which was just as well, By the time he got back stamping his feet and drying the dogs' paws,  snow was falling and settling. It continued for about five hours, until  at last there was a lull. The skies were grey and heavy, it was still freezing, but I had to get out for a short walk before dusk fell.

Looking like the Michelin man, bundled in layer upon layer, I began a short walk around the village, the dogs padding silently beside me, as we walked along our lane...

I was tempted to go into the field opposite, but it was already after four o'clock, so I decided to turn left and take the main road through our conservation village. The lane I live on has three thatched properties, a few cottages a church, an old chapel and what were two farms, very much the working part of the village. The main road through is filled with grander properties at this end, and as the road twists, the beautiful trees always catch my eye whatever the season.

I thought I was alone in this eerie winter scene until I caught a glimpse of a friend and his dog Betty. I was immediately aware how timeless this scene is...we could have been meeting in the 19th century as the sweep of the road hasn't changed for years. 

David and I stood and chattered, but Boo and Eric were getting cold standing in the snow, so I took the cut through to the church...

I love the sight of our small village church come rain or shine, but in winter, it looks breathtaking,

 

The light was fading in this monochrome world as we made our way through the churchyard, heading for home.

So, an invigorating walk, but the warmth of the kitchen when I arrived home was wonderful, especially as the snow began to fall outside again within minutes.

Yesterday though, there was a completely different feel to my afternoon walk. More snow still lying on the ground but with blue skies and sunshine for most of the day. Others walking around the village, quick chats as everyone tried to keep their footing on the ice which lay underneath the snow. It was lovely to hear the excited chatter of children playing outside,  with few cars still, in our small village on top of a hill, 170 metres above sea level.

As I walked down the hill to the next village, I admired the stark beauty of the fields beyond.

On the way back I passed the sheep who thought the dogs and I had come to feed them.  We hadn't, so they lost interest but kept close as I took this shot of them and the sun which was beginning to set.....

Today is our fourth day of snow, the roads are treacherous around here, so we're not leaving the village yet.
The cupboards are full of food, luckily there is no urgency to get out and I think how precious these slow snow days are.

Meanwhile, our garden sleeps until the rain, which is forecast for later, arrives. 

Then it's back to whatever normality is in this lockdown life.......

Holi on a winter white day

Some of my  friends are celebrating Holi today.

I rather like this Hindu festival - it's fun and always make me smile even though it can be quite chaotic.

Celebrating the energy of the season and new life, it's known as the Festival of Colours. So how do you celebrate it? Well at its simplest, you gather with family, friends and neighbours , smear them all  with paint and throw coloured dye and powder around and over each other.

 

 

 

Of course there's far more to it than that to this annual tradition celebrating the start of spring, but a bonfire to gather around marks the start of the festivities.



 

 

No one is allowed to escape having paint over their face, it's all part of the fun and this is one of the most joyous and friendly of festivals. I love it, especially as during Holi, your religion or caste don't matter,  everyone joins together and has fun in a sea of colour.

 

 



The photos above are from a few years back, but today is totally different...its a white and snowy world.

 

 

I'm at home in my tiny, silent village, I didn't see one car on my walk down the hill towards the next village, probably because no cars can get up the hill.

Sheet ice under fresh snow and a high gradient don't make driving easy, and the only sound I can hear is the wind rattling through the trees sounding very sinister.

Elsewhere though, there is music, colour, joy and laughter today and tomorrow ,so a very happy Holi to you all.

 

A day of snow and fire

 "The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow" says the sixteenth century nursery rhyme....and so it did last night.

I woke up to a wonderful white and grey land with snow everywhere.

The rhyme goes on ...

"And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm
and hide his head under his wing, poor thing."

 There were no signs of the robins we have seen here for years, and I hoped that they had found somewhere to shelter in one of the barns that are dotted around our village.

There's another variation of the rhyme which says
"He'll sit on a twig,
And we'll feed him some bread,
And he'll sing to say 'Thank you, my friends',
Poor thing!"

Well, the robins weren't perched where they usually were  and I'd seen neither hide or hair of them.

My dogs Boo and Eric didn't care at all, they were having far too much fun racing around the garden.

And I'm afraid I wasn't going out to look for the birds. Although I'd admired the wintery cloak of white everywhere through the sitting room window, I stayed inside all day by the fire.

Ah, the fire...one of the few pleasures of my least favourite season. There's something about the ritual of building a fire that I love. Scrunching the paper, laying the twigs on top, then adding the logs  - it's addictive.

But today all I had to do was light a match and watch as everything began to burn. Mr Thinking of the days had set the fire earlier before going out, and it sprang into life, drawing well.

By now the dogs were lying in front of the fire too....Eric asleep on my knee and Boo by my feet. They were both fast asleep until a hiss, a crackle from the fire woke them up briefly every now and again.

I sat there quietly....mesmerised by the flames, toasting my warm toes with no sounds to interfere with this special time.  My book lay on my lap unread, I sat there doing nothing , just thinking. And the beauty of it all was that I wasn't  expected to do anything and I wasn't  sitting there feeling guilty because I wasn't doing anything. After all, I'm supposed to be resting and recuperating.

Which I was doing ! Apart from looking outside to see if the robins had put in an appearance -  which they didn't.

Simple pleasures......



seedy and snowy days

The holiday at home continues....the snow that was promised over the weekend arrived yesterday...

and there was more last night and this morning.

The weather is in a capricious mood today. One minute snow is falling with a sideways swipe, there's a biting wind. Five minutes later the sun is out...making everywhere look fresh and clean....

and then rewind....the snow is back.

All the gardening both at home and on the allotment I'd planned has had to take a back seat.  With so much to be done, it's frustrating.

I can still sow seeds though. Broad beans and Alderman  peas were already sown a few weeks back and are tucked up in the cold frame and plastic greenhouse outside.

But there's lots more to sow....these I got from Seedy Sunday at the beginning of the month.


An annual event, it's held in a nearby village....we all take a few packets of seed....and you get vouchers for each packet to swap with what else is there. It's very busy, with lots of jostling to get close to the seeds on offer..there's lots of people talking plants, the composting gurus from leicestershire County Council are there along with my favourite stallholders, volunteers from the Heritage Seed Library.

They're so knowledgeable, so enthusiastic ..I could talk to them for ages...but in the end come away with two lots of peas.

Peas are in the top three of my favourite crops to grow. Eyewateringly expensive to buy in the shops when fresh, I just love their sweetness, and crunchiness when eaten raw.

Clarke's Beltony Blue - which is a wrinkled heirloom variety of pea and was donated by Mrs Anderson. It was grown on her great grandfather’s farm in Co. Tyrone since at least 1850 (but possibly as far back as 1815). Apparently it's tall, with beautiful pale pink and rich maroon flowers followed by purple pods .Can't wait to see these grow.

As for the purple flowering russian peas ....they were brought back from Russia by a lady called Valerie Fordham -they're tall with pink and purple flowers.

I'm also growing again this year peas I've been saving each year for a while...they're yellow mange tout peas, ...yes, yellow mange tout! They're described as being incredibly rare...I got them from the Real Seed Company about four years ago...and with the exception of last year, they've done me proud.


There's some interesting varieties of beans I'm going to sow this year too.
I've bought some of Sarah Raven's organic Speedy Dwarf French beans ..which I've not grown before , but only take sixty days to mature.

From Seedy Sunday , I managed to get some of Mr fearn's Purple Flowering climbing beans..
I got these just for the name really, but have since found out that “They grow very well in a cold greenhouse – avoid hot sun or outside growing". That's from the donor Bernard Fearne who's been growing them since the war. ...but unfortunately I haven't got a cold greenhouse . I'll give them a whirl though....

But perhaps I'll do better with the "Sarah's Old fashioned black". I couldn't resist trying these too as although they come from Vancouver Island, BC, Canada, it's said that these beans seem to thrive in the British climate.

My seed stash this year seems to be larger than usual....so lots more sowing to do..but I'm also planning to visit the Edible Garden Show at Stoneleigh this weekend,  the only national event dedicated to growing your own fruit, vegetables and home produce.  Will I see you there?
http://www.theediblegardenshow.co.uk/


So the stash will no doubt get bigger....as Oscar Wilde wrote "I can avoid everything except temptation." And with so many exhibitors there, I know I won't come home empty handed.

Today's track is from New Zealanders The Black Seeds.....I kept humming this song as I wrote about Sarah's Old fashioned Black seeds...

I love this band, especially after seeing them last year here... http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/summer-sundae-days.html

This song is called fire...recorded live in Denver...

 

days of feeling cold

Cold, cold, cold. Yes, it is....last night temperatures went down to minus 15 celsius.This morning, it's still minus 6 at nearly 11am.

The heating is on, I'm dressed in layers and am even wearing a scarf indoors.That's what I call cold.

Mind you, it's pretty out there.....look....

But I'm not going anywhere today. I shall pop outside to feed the birds, but that's it.I'm definitely not driving anywhere...we live on top of a hill....it's half a mile downhill and there's only one passing place for another car. You just have to drive down in second gear...and coming up, you just pray another car isn't coming down quickly!

But I'm staying in.And you know what are my two constant companions are at the moment.? Two faithful little friends which I can't do without at night?

I know....you don't have to say anything.it's sad....but these old hotties are rocking my world  right now....

and so is this.....Mama's blanket. My mum knitted it for me  and I love it - such a perfect, practical present which has been used and used.It's over my knees at this very moment...

So a quiet weekend in store with lots of writing to do....and perhaps a snooze this afternoon by the fire.

Meanwhile I've had this song swirling around my head all morning....so if you like some retro Little Feat...here it's is "Cold, cold,cold"

A day of snow and birds

It snowed yesterday - about five inches worth, and it's still lying deep and crisp  and even today. I wanted to capture the garden and whoops, fell over, clicked the camera at the same time and this is  how it turned out.

I've told you before how I've never been a good photographer! The reputations of Margaret Bourke White and Annie Leibovitz  have nothing to fear from me,but I actually quite like this.  I suppose it has a certain wonky appeal....


 

This time last week, it was a very grey, heavy skied afternoon. I was in the kitchen listenening to Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4 and taking part in the RSPB (the Royal Society of the Protection of Birds) survey. Like thousands of others around the country I was recording what birds came into the garden for an hour and then posting the results online.

Bird books and binoculars are always by my kitchen window.I wish I was one of these wonderful people who can identify any bird at about 50 metres, but I'm not. Unfortunately my bird watching skills are on the same level as my photography skills.

It was interesting though if not quiet.We normally get quite a lot of birds here as there's quite a few feeding stations around the garden. fat balls, seeds, peanuts....you name it....they fly in for free food.

But last Sunday, as I say, it was quiet. I still managed to record blackbirds,great tits, dunnocks,sparrows,piedwag tail, doves,wood pigeons,robins,chaffinches and blue tits though.

But today, it's been busier than Heathrow Airport. Flights might have been postponed there but birds were flying in every few seconds from every direction, they were obviously starving.You can just about see one on the feeding station on the right, enjoying the potato skins which I boiled up, mashed and put out.

It was good to go out into the snow for a quick walk and to see what the road through the village was looking like. I'm supposed to reading late night news bulletins tomorrow if I get there.....

But tomorrow is another day, and it was far too cold to stay out for long.So I'm back home, in the best possible place to be......

Here!

Today's track from the  Byrds.Always a favourite song of mine, I only saw this piece  of video for the first time about three weeks ago..There is a season for everything...including snow