So good, I wore it twice. The first occasion was on an afternoon where the light was so woeful that the camera was just dead weight around my neck; I'd have been better off with a torch. Slightly irritated not to have snapped a few shots of myself - see how peculiar life becomes if you write a blog - I wore it again the following week on a much brighter day. The jumper over this dress serves more of a purpose than just an added layer of warmth; it breaks up the rather sack-like shape without causing more a scene by attempting waist definition plus it serves to highlight the collar which is camouflaged against the same fabric if you wear the dress on it's own.
Long coat and gloves for warmth
These boots have come into their own! Perfect for everything except gravel. The boggy mud has meant mucky boots but these have kept me safe and dry so far. I have been watching my step, especially after C had a slip on some treacherous clay-y mud. I didn't laugh because falling over in the mud isn't funny. Oh come on, who am I kidding? It's hilarious if there's no serious injuries.

Take care,
Sophie

They say it's Blue Monday, the most miserable Monday of the year which I would dispute - most Mondays are met with disgust or ire. As an outdoorsy soul I have to say that even though I mentally label the months from the middle of October to mid March as the terrible ones where we live under the dark cloud of winter, the interminable time when I'm trapped indoors for months on end. But this is strictly not true. Things keep growing regardless (weeds for starters!) the rose in the garden has incredibly slow-opening buds, the violas in the doorstep pots would still be blooming had they not been eaten. Even the spring flowers have shoots appearing everywhere. There's still much to potter with outside, it does just look bleak. The harvest of parsnips and leeks goes on.
Due to the respite in demand on my time we have been able to nip out for walks or trips to town, there are more photographs taken than at most other times of year.
As for interminable, I'm mindful to place orders for seeds, bulbs and tubers before I miss the boat and we've already plotted out the 2020 vegetable patch layout. So things are racing on towards spring. Where did those long winter evenings go after all? I've no idea. I didn't spend much of them reading or ahem sewing but I did enjoy watching programs which I wanted to watch and hardly anything just to fill time. There was a little bit of blogging too.



Some walks have yielded precious little of interest, it's been dire.


As for the weather, the winter is far from finished with us yet. The alarmingly wet period drags on, I'm still seeing waterlogged fields everywhere at the moment. I wouldn't bet against anything over the coming few months, though I'm keeping everything crossed there's no late frosts again as last year these were devastating to the fruit trees and hedges.

Have a good week, take care,
Sophie

A day when the light was good enough to use my zoom lens! I would love to take more pictures of the birds we see and this is only a practicality with a zoom as our feathered friends tend to feel shy at staying put as we approach. I go through spells of despair when taking photographs; sometimes nothing feels right, or interesting or I just cannot get the focus or shutter speed to co-operate. SO often the view from the viewfinder looks utterly mundane when to the naked eye the landscape pops with interest. Struggles aside, I feel compelled to persist with trying! The number of times I look back through old posts and enjoy long forgotten sights makes it worthwhile.
In winter we get to see all the nests that are covertly built in spring.
Velvety moss covered boughs, a luxury spec tree?

Lichens softening spiky branches.
This ancient looking tree (or trees - it's hard to tell) reminds me of Lincoln's feet when he sleeps and all four are woven together.
I need to re-acquaint myself with the difference between blue tits and great tits.
C spotted this bird hard at work and I was please to capture it in a few shots. Looking it up in the book the next day we discovered it was a nuthatch. See it flinging debris from the tree!


I didn't used to care for birds but I quite like these little guys. And birds of prey. And everything that enters our garden. This year we want to take part in the garden bird watch although hopefully the pigeons won't hog the show. The wretches keep pooping in the bird baths and drinking water.

Yellow brain fungus again, the largest clumps of it spotted yet!



Tree ridden with fungi!

Take care and have a wonderful weekend,
Sophie

This year has been very different in terms of approach to our meadow of flowers. I last wrote about the patch back in September when things hadn't gone to plan and I was left feeling downhearted. Since then we picked ourselves up, got busy and made some plans.
Once the seeds (good and bad!) had finished dropping we cleared the patch, sprayed the lot - which was predominantly more of the bad stuff coming though and left it a bit.
We sowed a mix of meadow grass, flowers for a meadow and yellow rattle. Ambitiously we somehow got a roller to the site, which we then had to drag around like sweaty oxen, then re-load back into the vehicle. However, I was relieved to have completed the arduous task and sit back to wait.
Excitingly, the grass started to germinate but a mole moved in. Thankfully, it has now re-located to a molehill in the sky so all has mellowed out a bit. These pictures were taken a couple of months ago.
The situation on the ground at present is there's a lot of growth, much identifiable as weeds - like groundsel. When the time is right we can mow (up to a certain point in spring), but in the mean time I intend to pop along and hand weed out the really bad patches as we don't want things going to seed again.
I hope that this new approach will be more fruitful and who knows, but by keeping a close eye on the patch we can control the unwanted growth before it gets the chance to spiral.

Take care,
Sophie

Today I'm sharing the photographs I managed to take on Monday's post on the morning there was bright sunshine. The struggle had been real with light, lenses and things of interest to snap for the past few weeks. On two occasions I took out my zoom lens only to find it wasn't nearly light enough to use, so frustrating! However, this day was just right and it was enjoyable to see my surroundings with fresh eyes, even if those were frequently dazzled.


A river I didn't even realise was there.

Tangle of growth. Reminds me of my terribly knotty hair.

What's down in the moss? Mushrooms of course.


Fantastic lichens and mosses.


Great big frozen puddles.

Seed heads in the sunshine.

Feathery grasses
Oh hello little robin!
Those copper ferns in the melting frost with that sunny backdrop. I could just dive in.

Take care,
Sophie