Spring

Hello all! Thank you all so much for your kind and thoughtful comments on my last post. I was delighted and interested to hear how many of you also enjoy handwriting - you really are a talented and inspiring lot. I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks now and I must say it's good to be back. Two weeks isn't long, but I miss this cosy, friendly and sharing world when I'm gone. Despite trying to be more organised in term-time I still struggle to fit things in (perhaps I'm too ambitious!). Anyway, never mind all that. I'd like to show you the most wonderful sunrise which I woke to yesterday morning. This was the view from our window - isn't it just beautiful?

Already it's almost the middle of March - here's this month's page of my calender. 

We've had some very bright and chilly days lately, as well as sleety showers and light snow-falls, but it's been toasty and warm indoors here. Clover has been very busy making herself comfortable on my crocheted cushion. There's nothing she likes better than to knead it well with her claws - oh dear. It's lucky for her that she's so sweet.

Last weekend I bought a bunch of anenomes and have been enjoying their jewel-like colours.

With their feathery foliage and inky black centres, they are so very spring-like that they make me want to do a little dance.

Something else that makes me feel rather giddy is the addition of some yarn to my already sizeable stash. There's no danger of me doing any stash-busting, but I generally only buy one ball of each yarn to make little things with (honest!). These are from my current favourite LYS and are 4 balls of Rico Creative Cotton in the most gorgeously muted, vintagey shades. I'm knitting the rest of my little napkin rings with them, and will show you when they're finished. 

The lighter evenings nowadays mean that when I come home from work there is a little time to wander out to my shed with a cup of tea. I sometimes just potter around it tidying and rearranging things, and generally chilling out. If I have more energy I sit and make things for a bit. One evening this week I just sat for half an hour and listened to the birdsong outside. Sparrows were chattering noisily in the trees and blackbirds were calling. The arrival of spring felt tangible, and reminded me of Mole in 'The Wind in the Willows':

'Spring was moving in the air above and the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing ... the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout'.

 Having a special place to go to to be creative and store my things in has been wonderful and I count myself as very lucky every time I step inside. I change the decor as the seasons come and go, an at the moment am loving the colours of spring. These bright blue grape hyacinths are blooming beautifully on the workbench. 

They're one of my favourite spring flowers with their neat little clusters of frilly bells.

Blue hyacinths have been filling the place with their heady perfume too.

The sun came out and shone through this little blue lantern.

As well as all this blue, Miss Blossom has changed into more spring-like attire and is decked out in emerald green,

and some jaunty pink bunting is up, a tonic after the muted shades of winter.

Just like Mole, I am very ready for the sunshine, warmth and colour of spring. Can't wait!

Catching Up

Hello there! It's been a very chilly week or two here with some clear, star-studded skies at night and some very sparkly frosts in the mornings. We haven't had much rain and the sun has shone almost every day. On bright days it's noticeable that the days are lengthening just a little bit, and that really does make a difference to the end of the day when I walk home in wonderful sunshine. It lifts my spirits and gives me a bit of a spring in my step, making me want to go outside and be active instead of closing the curtains and battening down the hatches. The mornings have been beautiful too, with some fabulous frosty sunrises. The last two mornings in particular have arrived in a burst of cold wintry colour. Just beautiful.

The little plumes of smoke rising from homes with real fires and stoves look cosy in the morning, and I find it pleasant to think that people around me in the little terraced stone houses that characterise this area are also getting ready for work and school, making breakfast and putting on coats, hats, gloves and scarves ready to go out. In the pastel skies birds rise in the morning air, already about their business of keeping warm and fed. I must admit I would very much have liked to go out with my camera yesterday morning to take frosty photos. 

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post. As I'm a bit of a sporadic blogger these days I'm always thrilled that you take the time and trouble to read and comment on my posts. I've been plodding on with my scarf. As you know, I'm not the world's fastest knitter, but I do plan to finish it this month. I'm getting better at finding small moments in the day when I can knit two rows here or three there. It's not quite long enough at the moment, but I am getting to the stage where I'm beginning to wonder how long it will end up. I guess I'll probably measure it against one I already own. I'm even starting to think I could use the leftover yarn to make a matching hat, albeit a simple one, as it is so soft and squishy. Hmmm, one project at a time, methinks. 

At the weekend we popped over to Frome, one of my favourite places. We were there late in the afternoon and the light was fading. As we parked the car I looked at the tree above me and thought at first that it was hung with Christmas baubles. On closer inspection I realised that it was a plane tree and the 'baubles' were its fluffy seeds. Against the sky, they made fascinating silhouettes.

Frome is such a creative and inspiring place, and St Catherine's Hill is full of the prettiest craft and vintage shops. I've mentioned it before in my posts here.

I do like the higgledy-piggledy houses and rooftops against the darkening sky.

The wintry window display of this fabulous natural toiletries shop caught my eye - isn't it gorgeous?

The herby, flowery smells which waft out of this shop are amazing, and it's all so very twinkly too.

Another old street, Cheap Street, is full of unusual gift shops, tearooms and cafes, and has a water channel running down the centre of it. There's a lovely cafe at the top where we sat and watched the world go by for a short while whilst enjoying a coffee.

It was B's birthday last weekend, and we celebrated with lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant in Bristol and finished the day with a chocolate cake. I made a chocolate sponge and filled and iced it with chocolate buttercream, covering it in chocolate and caramel buttons, raspberry dark chocolate, mini chocolate mint sticks and mini gold buttons. Quite a combination, but it did work. 

Back home I lit one of the teacup candles which I made at Christmas, and admired B's birthday roses. 

She had a lovely day, and I can't believe that we're already almost at another weekend. Time does fly, doesn't it? I'm planning on spending some time blog-hopping this weekend - fingers crossed!

See you soon x

Midwinter

I can't believe it's a year since I made a midwinter post. Time flies, doesn't it? The days are short now, and it starts to get dark in the middle of the afternoon. This photo was taken in my garden this weekend just after 4 o'clock as the light was fading on a sunny afternoon, and the moon was already high in the sky.





 For me there's something magical about the winter solstice, when the hours of daylight are at their shortest, and I mark it with greenery and candlelight. It's a time of imagination, reflection and introspection, as well as looking forward to longer, lighter days. How welcome they will be! The winter-flowering honeysuckle which grows by our back door is already in flower and smells wonderfully sweet. I added it to my midwinter arrangement, a mix of whites and greens.

I have treated myself to 'The Mistletoe Bride' by Kate Mosse, a collection of ghostly, wintry tales, just perfect for snuggling up with by the fire on a dark day. I'm easily spooked, though, so not great for bedtime reading I think.

I'll leave you with these midwinter lines (although the weather we have at the moment does not reflect what's described here, as it's rather milder): 

'In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
water like a stone'.

Christina Rossetti

Getting Festive

Hello, dear readers. I'm just starting to feel a bit Christmassy, rather later than usual this year.

Already I've been to two of D's music concerts, to two work Christmas meals and on two cinema trips (to see 'The Lady in the Van' and 'Carol', both excellent). Yes, it's definitely that time of year again, but I haven't done anything remotely crafty yet for Christmas! This must surely be a world record for me, as by now I am usually in the midst of making several presents at once, as well as cooking and producing all sorts of decorations. Perhaps it's a new, more relaxed me at Christmas? Or maybe I should get my skates on...

We may not yet have put up any decorations, but I have been opening my new advent calendar. Unlike the rest of my family, I prefer those with pictures to chocolate ones. Here's my new Angela Harding calendar which I love for its wintriness and countryside theme.

In a similar vein I've just finished reading this book below, which is a beautiful description of a year in the life of the flora and fauna of a village in the Somerset Levels, which is not far from here. It was a lovely read, full of detailed descriptions of nature and fascinating information.

On a more festive note we went recently to Winchester Christmas market with my brother and his family, which I have to say was a very jolly afternoon out. There were twinkly star lanterns,

coppery vats of steaming mulled wine,

and sizzling hot chestnuts.

Some of the stalls were extremely ornate, things of beauty in their own right.

I must confess to finding it very difficult to photograph a Christmas market without getting lots of people in the foreground. As you can see, I've gone for an over-the-head view of it here.

The cathedral was as Gothically gorgeous as ever with its front window a giant, stained-glass collage after Cromwell and his army smashed it to pieces during the Civil War.

I love to walk underneath its flying buttresses in all their medieval splendour.

The ice rink was in full swing next to the cathedral and we watched with my little nephews, mesmerised as the tractor drove around the rink, making the ice smooth for the next session. My nephews really rather fancied the idea of a job in which you get to drive a tractor around an ice rink.

Similar icy patterns appeared the next morning on the outside of the Velux window in our bedroom. We had a frost in the night and wonderful tiny twirly fronds and frosty leaves spread themselves across the surface of the glass, like a beautiful wintry doodle. I edited these photos to enhance the definition of the patterns, as the sky wasn't really that blue that day, but the sparkly designs are truly amazing.

By contrast most of the mornings lately have dawned windy and wet and look like this. December in recent years is so often mild and wet in our part of the world.  Never mind, we are very fortunate in not having suffered any flood damage, unlike so many people this week, so I really can't complain.

I shall leave you with a photo of one of the roses still blooming in our garden. Not very Christmassy, I know, but I'm getting there.

 See you soon x