Saturday 21.01.2021

 So it was back to an afternoon walk, taking the new boots for their maiden tramp.......they will never look so pristine again.....

It was bright blue and white, a clear sky and ice, very very cold with a nippy wind snapping at the ears.  The sun shone valiantly but couldn`t make much impact on the temperature

It was all very bracing,  so with new boots moving along nicely we took a slightly different route, affording slightly different views to the usual.

 

Once we turned back into the woods we rejoined the well-worn path which led us home as the sun started to go down.

Later, we yomped slowly round the top field in the gloaming, old dog and younger dog, watching the lights appear across the hills and the flashing light of a tractor making its way up the back hill. Earth hard as iron, water like a stone, we made it back down to the fire and tea.

Friday 22.01.2021

The weather was having a laugh yesterday. That thing about no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes?

Not yesterday. All day the weather sang or rather screeched:

• you`re not coming out today
• you`re not going to want to come out today
• the dogs aren`t going to want to come out today

I did go out, in the dark, in the morning, to take the dogs around the top field, in horizontal rain whipped up by a vicious wind. And the level of disappointment I felt was ridiculous.

They`d promised snow at the beginning of the week and right up to the evening before, a thick fall of snow. I had new boots! My injured foot (long story) was completely healed. After days of drizzle I`d imagined blue sky, sparkling unsullied snow and a long march round, drinking in the icy fresh air.

Huh!  I spent the rest of the day hunkered down in a big comfy chair by the fire, alternately sulking and  glaring at the window as the weather taunted me, roaring round the house and wailing mainiacally. (Though I got a lot of reading done in between the tantrums)

By the end I felt 100 years older than I am, was cross with everything, had eaten too much and went too bed early.  And all because it didn`t snow when they said it would? 

Deep breath when I woke up this morning. Head out of the door. Better. Not perfect but better. Still no snow but no rain either. Dogs and me round the top field just as the light creeps up. No rain but a strong raw wind blows bullets of sleet and hail into our eyes. However, seem to have got over the disappointment and the day improves.  

And we get what felt like the first evening  walk of the year. Early evening, but evening nevertheless. Younger dog and I don`t set off until quarter to four. The clouds have lifted, the crows are wheeling round and in the woods there`s so much bird activity that it`s as if they`re enjoying the lengthening days too.

It was cold but no wind to speak of and still no rain. We squelched round in mud and rotten leaves, skidding a little on the odd icy patch. The temperature was falling as we turned onto the road and headed down the hill: we could almost hear the puddles crackling as they iced over.

As we enjoyed the last of the light, with a bright yellow demi-moon over our heads, there really was an intimation, if not of spring exactly, at least of   longer evenings to come.

Friday 8.01.2021

 

Words superfluous today really. A cloudy early morning, a slender crescent moon hanging over our heads affording enough light across the snow for us to pick our way round. 

Then, as the sun came up and the cloud cleared, the day was transformed into picture postcard stuff.  

Later, as the sun headed downwards at the end of its currently pretty short journey around the horizon, the temperature was plummeting again, preserving the landscape in ice and freezing noses and ears. Literally breathtaking.

Wednesday 30.12.2020

 Not quite the end of this crazy year. Snowing gently outside the shed just now. Yes, there is a Shed.  For various reasons it has been unavailable pretty much since it was constructed. It takes a little effort to walk up to, especially at this time of year, getting the wood stove going, making sure I have everything I need with me. On the other hand I know how many people would envy this shed (despite the fact it still needs some titivation e.g. plugging the leak that lets rain down between the chimney and the wall, where it pools on the hearth and eventually overflows onto the floor unless mopped up regularly) and it is a very good place to settle down to read and write so I resolve to make more use of it in 2021.

The Shed should figure more in the blog.....

Meanwhile December days seem to have run their usual course with one or two curve balls thrown in. The solstice passed, the earth came to the end of the long run down and reset its controls to head for the sun;  meanwhile lights were hung up to counteract the darkness while the weather threw everything into the mix that it could - sun, torrential rain with gales, torrential rain without gales, snow, mist and thick fog, low cloud, high cloud, crimson sunrises and golden sunsets.

This morning, before sunrise, the nearly full moon lit up our path around the backfield, the ground  dancing and sparkling in the hard frost. The still air cut through the lungs as Old Dog (16 this month) plodded on in front and Younger Dog  raced about re-establishing her territory for the new day, as she does every morning. 

The snow has stopped temporarily - we are forecast more over the next 24 hours - and there are geese that need feeding before the light goes altogether.....although I swear it is already possible to discern a small lengthening of the day........

Full moon tonight, Hogmanay tomorrow with us staying put on the hill and out of harm`s way, which is no hardship. Nevertheless, here`s hoping 2021 will be the year  we can spread our wings and enjoy the company of family, friends and strangers alike.

Friday 18.12.20

 What a gentle afternoon. Greys and greens and patches of pale pinks and blues. Very mild and still.

Then, as we were heading back, the wind sprang up, like the comedian sent in to warm up the crowd before the main event, the trees began waving backwards and forwards and the promised rain began to spit and spat.

Never really came to anything.

The wind is still whining and wailing outside though, while the fire in here is roaring away. Lucky to have it to come home to.

Friday 4th December

 Always a bit of an ani-climax when snow is forecast and all we get is a light sprinkling of the white stuff, like icing sugar shaken out of a sieve.  No big dollops  and dramatic snowthunder that they`ve had further south.

By late morning it had all turned to water anyway......

and slush.

We went out anyway, partly because deluges were forecast for the afternoon but it was hard walking through the woods - slippy and ankle-turny, like walking through soft sand dunes, and by the time we turned for home, the legs were feeling it.

Nevertheless, good thing to have done: the lichen glowed in the gloomy light;

the trees were doing their full-on winter silhouette display;

with an Ent trying to look inconspicuous in amongst them.

A lot of rain for the rest of the day, puddles and reflections

and pretty dark by about half three.

The other side of autumn.

In other news...and your starter for ten: do worms like bananas? Or do bananas like worms?

Thursday 3d December

 "Earth stood hard as iron,water like a stone": no "snow on snow" yet but some is forecast. Suffice to say that late this afternoon, up on the hill, under a cloudless but darkening sky, it was so cold and so still it wouldn`t  have been a surprise if the ground had started to splinter and crack.

At lunchtime, with the sun as high it was going to get for the day, it was a gorgeous sparkly landscape, the cold spurring us on to walk even faster than usual.

Frosty where the sun hadn`t penetrated,

frost-free where it had or under some of the trees.

The light enhanced it all as the sun began its descent, peeking between branches and casting long shadows.   

Meanwhile, the early mornings have been offering other delights: the slowly waning moon has been high in a clear sky an hour or so before the sun comes up and three days ago sported a perfect double rainbow ring. If that isn`t a portent for something it should be.

Given the forecast for wind, rain and maybe that snow overnight, might not linger up there for quite so long tomorrow morning............