Rainy here too, EastGermany, but we are used to it. January is when we leave the blinds closed so we don't have to see the misery. I make pizza with lots of canned veg, artichokes, olives, nice oval tomatoes, lentil curries sunshiny with turmeric, to be as unseasonal and far away as possible. The daughters had enough already of cabbage and potatoey things from the oven. Just when I pull on a coat and walk the dog in the forest I am all here in this Kaspar-David-Friedrich-like country. I breathe in the damp of rotting leaves and ever-growing moss and deep inside, my heart is darkly smiling.
I love the idea of travelling through the seasons with food! I'm never tired of cabbage though - we have been leaning in hard to the cabbage and potato life. (Ask me in another couple of weeks and I'm sure I'll be eating fruit salad!)
I know Lia how you feel - this week I have been still noticing seasonal changes with all I’m worth. But yesterday I experienced a bereavement and the howling winds and rain seemed to apt to the sadness, if not pleasant. This is such a tough time of year. I saved some lovely moments from earlier in the week before everything got a bit down, which have a sort of gentle feel to them. The first is a marshmallow sunset with the wind whipping across my face. All shades of deep blue with pink and indigo clouds racing across the sky. Second, a white and deep pink amaryllis which snapped from its long stalk, floating quietly in a bowl of water so we can enjoy its beauty a little longer. Third, two moorhens on a fallen willow branch which dipped into the canal, allowing them to perch above the glassy black water, only picked out from by their surroundings by their orange beaks. I hope everyone’s week is going okay - sounds like everyone is having a bit of a time of it x
Also Lia I wonder if the bracket fungi might be turkey tales? I am no expert but that is just my guess. I’m sure someone will know more than I do about it though x
Definitely the month of hibernating & hunkering down. Easier in a big City where seasons seem easily hidden. The word hunkering is weird?! Am enjoying waking up to see the moon in the morning & the light adding at the end of the afternoon.
I've had one of those weeks, thanks for making me smile Lia. Child with 40c temp even with meds, but this week I've also noticed the light gradually returning. Creeping under the curtains a little earlier and hanging in the windows a little longer. A song thrush has been singing with gay abandon here too. Little things that keep us moving forward.
Gah I have one with a lung infection and one off with more mysterious things so yeah...was making myself feel better too! Hope your little one is better soon.
Ditto to all the comments about all the rain in the UK .. trying to look for positives.. enjoying walks along the seafront in East Sussex.. very windy and enormous waves crashing on the beach this week ....gulls screeching overhead .. somehow enjoy the wind blowing out the cobwebs ... a joy to hear little birds in the hedges...
I'd just like to mention something that I saw yesterday while on a lovely walk in Drews Pond Wood in Devizes where amongst other things there is a small plaque commemorating the women of the Greenham Common Peace March from Cardiff who passed this way in 1981 and the Devizes community who supported them.
How brilliant, thank you for sharing this. My mum was very involved with various feminist movements when I was growing up particularly in the 80s so I always feel a kinship even though I never went to Greenham myself.
Although it is non-stop rain and winds here in Devon, the sight of zingy green shoots of spring bulbs poking up from the dark wet earth is an exciting prospect of what is just around the corner!
Here in southern Germanny it's stormy. Not always rain, although we've had it every day, but wild gusts of wind that rattle my shutters, howl around the house and make the clouds race across the sky over the valley. It's very cozy to be bundled up in bed and listen to it; walking the dogs in the forest becomes scary and exiting at the same time - everything is howling, rustling, creaking and moving.
I love a relentless wind. It sounds so cozy, even in the scary moments. You describe it so vividly that I want to go on the walk with you! Though a cup of something warm afterward may be a good idea, too.
It's been a bit dreary, hasn't it? We're due a temperature drop next week which will hopefully be refreshing and help me wake up a bit (first week of work has been a bit of a trudge). The wind has been wild here in Edinburgh. My two cats are indoor cats but are still most put out by the weather, and like to tell me in no uncertain terms that it's all my fault somehow! We also slept with four blankets on the bed last night. Very much feeling the dead of winter energy.
I'm looking forward to the cold snap next week too and hope it brings more clear skies. Cats really do blame us for the rain don't they! I guess even indoor cats want to sunbathe.
A walk through the forest in the rain with my husband & daughter to celebrate her 28th birthday, who cares about the thick squelchy mud and the slipping & sliding, the fresh breeze & rain on our faces was joyful & it felt so good to get some steps in & the body moving. A white fallow deer amongst a herd made our day as they romped away through the trees on spotting us, & then home to hot warming tea & birthday cake and a stash of magical memories made.
It's been one of those weeks in Virginia where the temperatures dip to freezing at night and rebound to the 60sF/15ishC during the day. My spring bulbs are a bit confused and I want to tell them, "wait! You aren't ready!" Though perhaps it's me that isn't, and they trust their own timing. I enjoy the respite in the balminess, but I look forward to bundling up for a walk in the cold again soon. They're my favorite sort.
It's true isnt it, much as we grumble about winter it's the time when I most want to be out having big walks. Hope your spring bulbs dont get too ahead of themselves.
As I’m writing this I am sat in my brothers living room back home in the Netherlands. A very short trip to my home country for a bereavement in my family. Here too has it been raining non stop since I arrived on Tuesday with the exception of the day of the service where it was blue skies, dry, fairly sunny and very windy. I’m flying back to home in Devon tonight and look forward to a cup of coffee in my greenhouse, my late planted spring bulbs that have started to emerge already! And walking around the garden my with two cats.
I’m in England this week, a little more than halfway through a study abroad course with students from the US. The daffodils I bought at the supermarket are blooming joyously in their mini-champagne bottle vase (repurposed from my mini-New Year’s Eve celebration). The animals at the local town farm are snuggling in their hay. The moments of sunshine are magical.
Gorgeous photos I love the name travellers joy, beautiful.
It has been a bit drizzly in Paris but nothing like the U.K., thankfully.
Highlights this week were seeing the moon shining through sone wispy clouds from my kitchen window early one morning, one of the best cafe crème’s I’ve had accompanied by a dark square of chocolate (it should be a law that coffee is served with chocolate in all cafes!), the amazing smell of mulched up Christmas trees in the park. It always make me so sad to see them lying discard in big heaps so it’s lovely that they have another purpose after the decorations come down - circle of life 🥰
I’m glad you like them. Always happy to talk if Paris. I’m writing this while in a cafe drinking coffee. Even though it’s a bit late in the morning but it was a slow start today! This one is even better as you get a mini Madeline with your drink. 😊
This week was my first proper week back at work. My dog, Fin, and I are back in the studio teaching people online around Europe about Software Defined Datacentres. Not that Fin does much other than bark at his arch nemesis, a magpie, that sits in a tree in the garden. The magpie flies in and they spend ages shouting at each other, such a racket. It's obviously something personal between the two of them, as he's not interested in other magpies or any other bird when we're out and about.
But at lunchtime, we have been dodging the rain and keeping our New Year's resolutions by taking a walk. well actually two, the first one on my own to get my heart pumping and get some exercise, and then another with Fin, because he is the slowest and nosiest dog who has to explore and sniff everything. It takes ages to get anywhere.
It's the aconites again - now literally popping their tiny bright yellow globes all over the garden; me checking daily on the cherry plum and witchhazel, knowing they will likely be the first buds to burst; and the sun shining on the robin/4 blue tits on the bird feeder, lighting up their beauty.
Rainy here too, EastGermany, but we are used to it. January is when we leave the blinds closed so we don't have to see the misery. I make pizza with lots of canned veg, artichokes, olives, nice oval tomatoes, lentil curries sunshiny with turmeric, to be as unseasonal and far away as possible. The daughters had enough already of cabbage and potatoey things from the oven. Just when I pull on a coat and walk the dog in the forest I am all here in this Kaspar-David-Friedrich-like country. I breathe in the damp of rotting leaves and ever-growing moss and deep inside, my heart is darkly smiling.
ah yes, revelling in it! Excellent. You can teach us all a thing or two.
I love the idea of travelling through the seasons with food! I'm never tired of cabbage though - we have been leaning in hard to the cabbage and potato life. (Ask me in another couple of weeks and I'm sure I'll be eating fruit salad!)
This sounds so lovely.
Such an evocative description of the countryside!
Thank you, Anne!
I know Lia how you feel - this week I have been still noticing seasonal changes with all I’m worth. But yesterday I experienced a bereavement and the howling winds and rain seemed to apt to the sadness, if not pleasant. This is such a tough time of year. I saved some lovely moments from earlier in the week before everything got a bit down, which have a sort of gentle feel to them. The first is a marshmallow sunset with the wind whipping across my face. All shades of deep blue with pink and indigo clouds racing across the sky. Second, a white and deep pink amaryllis which snapped from its long stalk, floating quietly in a bowl of water so we can enjoy its beauty a little longer. Third, two moorhens on a fallen willow branch which dipped into the canal, allowing them to perch above the glassy black water, only picked out from by their surroundings by their orange beaks. I hope everyone’s week is going okay - sounds like everyone is having a bit of a time of it x
Oh Im so sorry to hear this. And thank you for saving up your beautiful seasonal moments for us in the face of all that x
Also Lia I wonder if the bracket fungi might be turkey tales? I am no expert but that is just my guess. I’m sure someone will know more than I do about it though x
I thought Turkey tail too
Certainly looks like turkey's tails. Thanks both! Wonderfully descriptive name.
Definitely the month of hibernating & hunkering down. Easier in a big City where seasons seem easily hidden. The word hunkering is weird?! Am enjoying waking up to see the moon in the morning & the light adding at the end of the afternoon.
The season for the hunkering indeed.
I love the word hunkering very onomatopoeic 😊
I've had one of those weeks, thanks for making me smile Lia. Child with 40c temp even with meds, but this week I've also noticed the light gradually returning. Creeping under the curtains a little earlier and hanging in the windows a little longer. A song thrush has been singing with gay abandon here too. Little things that keep us moving forward.
Gah I have one with a lung infection and one off with more mysterious things so yeah...was making myself feel better too! Hope your little one is better soon.
OO, that's nasty, Lia! Thank you. I hope your'e are better soon too.
It's been such a season with sick children. The light creeping in and birdsong lifts my soul a little bit more each day, too.
It has, hasn't it? She'll be ok it's just a worry, but the Song Thrush has indeed lifted our spirits.
Ditto to all the comments about all the rain in the UK .. trying to look for positives.. enjoying walks along the seafront in East Sussex.. very windy and enormous waves crashing on the beach this week ....gulls screeching overhead .. somehow enjoy the wind blowing out the cobwebs ... a joy to hear little birds in the hedges...
That sounds very good. Would love more seaside walks.
Morning Lia?
I'd just like to mention something that I saw yesterday while on a lovely walk in Drews Pond Wood in Devizes where amongst other things there is a small plaque commemorating the women of the Greenham Common Peace March from Cardiff who passed this way in 1981 and the Devizes community who supported them.
How brilliant, thank you for sharing this. My mum was very involved with various feminist movements when I was growing up particularly in the 80s so I always feel a kinship even though I never went to Greenham myself.
Although it is non-stop rain and winds here in Devon, the sight of zingy green shoots of spring bulbs poking up from the dark wet earth is an exciting prospect of what is just around the corner!
Yes! They can't help themselves...
Yes, the snowdrops are out already in clumps in protected corners of the garden - at the foot of the lilac tree and along the hedge. 🤩
My bulbs are saying hello, as well!
Here in southern Germanny it's stormy. Not always rain, although we've had it every day, but wild gusts of wind that rattle my shutters, howl around the house and make the clouds race across the sky over the valley. It's very cozy to be bundled up in bed and listen to it; walking the dogs in the forest becomes scary and exiting at the same time - everything is howling, rustling, creaking and moving.
We have a rare sunny day today and you're making me miss the wind and rain!
I love a relentless wind. It sounds so cozy, even in the scary moments. You describe it so vividly that I want to go on the walk with you! Though a cup of something warm afterward may be a good idea, too.
Yes, this is the time of hot chocolates and all the teas! ☕🍵
Oh yes relentless is such an evocative word. The wind is like that today here. It just blew my umbrella inside out!
It's been a bit dreary, hasn't it? We're due a temperature drop next week which will hopefully be refreshing and help me wake up a bit (first week of work has been a bit of a trudge). The wind has been wild here in Edinburgh. My two cats are indoor cats but are still most put out by the weather, and like to tell me in no uncertain terms that it's all my fault somehow! We also slept with four blankets on the bed last night. Very much feeling the dead of winter energy.
I'm looking forward to the cold snap next week too and hope it brings more clear skies. Cats really do blame us for the rain don't they! I guess even indoor cats want to sunbathe.
Ugh me too. Yes a cold snap might be a nice relief.
A walk through the forest in the rain with my husband & daughter to celebrate her 28th birthday, who cares about the thick squelchy mud and the slipping & sliding, the fresh breeze & rain on our faces was joyful & it felt so good to get some steps in & the body moving. A white fallow deer amongst a herd made our day as they romped away through the trees on spotting us, & then home to hot warming tea & birthday cake and a stash of magical memories made.
Now that's a good day. You're putting me to shame!
It's been one of those weeks in Virginia where the temperatures dip to freezing at night and rebound to the 60sF/15ishC during the day. My spring bulbs are a bit confused and I want to tell them, "wait! You aren't ready!" Though perhaps it's me that isn't, and they trust their own timing. I enjoy the respite in the balminess, but I look forward to bundling up for a walk in the cold again soon. They're my favorite sort.
It's true isnt it, much as we grumble about winter it's the time when I most want to be out having big walks. Hope your spring bulbs dont get too ahead of themselves.
Here in brooklyn, bulbs are popping up too- i have been grumbling that they are too early but i guess they do know their time, don’t they?
As I’m writing this I am sat in my brothers living room back home in the Netherlands. A very short trip to my home country for a bereavement in my family. Here too has it been raining non stop since I arrived on Tuesday with the exception of the day of the service where it was blue skies, dry, fairly sunny and very windy. I’m flying back to home in Devon tonight and look forward to a cup of coffee in my greenhouse, my late planted spring bulbs that have started to emerge already! And walking around the garden my with two cats.
Sorry to hear this, and hope you enjoy returning to your bulbs and cats x
I’m in England this week, a little more than halfway through a study abroad course with students from the US. The daffodils I bought at the supermarket are blooming joyously in their mini-champagne bottle vase (repurposed from my mini-New Year’s Eve celebration). The animals at the local town farm are snuggling in their hay. The moments of sunshine are magical.
Yes there have at least been a few sun-shiney moments
Gorgeous photos I love the name travellers joy, beautiful.
It has been a bit drizzly in Paris but nothing like the U.K., thankfully.
Highlights this week were seeing the moon shining through sone wispy clouds from my kitchen window early one morning, one of the best cafe crème’s I’ve had accompanied by a dark square of chocolate (it should be a law that coffee is served with chocolate in all cafes!), the amazing smell of mulched up Christmas trees in the park. It always make me so sad to see them lying discard in big heaps so it’s lovely that they have another purpose after the decorations come down - circle of life 🥰
Very much enjoying our weekly Parisian update Alix, thank you and I am now picturing myself in a Parisian cafe with coffee and chocolate.
I’m glad you like them. Always happy to talk if Paris. I’m writing this while in a cafe drinking coffee. Even though it’s a bit late in the morning but it was a slow start today! This one is even better as you get a mini Madeline with your drink. 😊
#
This week was my first proper week back at work. My dog, Fin, and I are back in the studio teaching people online around Europe about Software Defined Datacentres. Not that Fin does much other than bark at his arch nemesis, a magpie, that sits in a tree in the garden. The magpie flies in and they spend ages shouting at each other, such a racket. It's obviously something personal between the two of them, as he's not interested in other magpies or any other bird when we're out and about.
But at lunchtime, we have been dodging the rain and keeping our New Year's resolutions by taking a walk. well actually two, the first one on my own to get my heart pumping and get some exercise, and then another with Fin, because he is the slowest and nosiest dog who has to explore and sniff everything. It takes ages to get anywhere.
Ha ha Fin sounds gorgeous, glad your New Years resolution hasn’t fallen apart yet!
It's the aconites again - now literally popping their tiny bright yellow globes all over the garden; me checking daily on the cherry plum and witchhazel, knowing they will likely be the first buds to burst; and the sun shining on the robin/4 blue tits on the bird feeder, lighting up their beauty.
Wonderful. Spring is really getting on with it in your garden!
I know, but this time last year the Christmas roses were out, no sign of them yet this year.