Snow Day

This morning we woke up  to the muffling silence of snow.  The garden was snuggled under a brilliant soft white blanket.

People are out on the street.  A mum is pulling her two girls along on a sledge.  A  mum and dad are walking along with their little one who is wide eyed at the first snow he has probably ever seen.  I can hear squeals of delight as I'm typing.  Each family is keeping their social distance but smiling and waving to all who pass by or call encouragement from their garden gates.

 Four young male blackbirds were clamouring around the feeders waiting for nibbles so a path was made to the bird feeders.  On the hanging feeders it was finch time as we saw a bullfinch, chaffinches and goldfinches.

There are two snow caused casualties in the garden. 

The Hebe is down but hopefully may bounce back

The netting cover constructed last Spring to protect the vegetables and fruit from badgers and birds has completely collapsed and stands no chance of bouncing back.

What to do on a day like today?  I have a basket of ironing , that will keep me warm.  I have a good book on my kindle to curl up with later.  I'll write a post about my recent reading soon.

Christmas Morning

Just popping in to say thank to all who visit me here.  Thank you for reading, commenting and being such lovely blogging friends.

 Christmas will be different for us all this year but wherever you are my wish is that you have a peaceful day today finding joy in small things. Take care and stay safe.

 

Morning Sun

 We've had such strange weather over the last few days but we have been able to get out for a quick walk a few times between the raindrops.  Over the muddy fields, for which wellies are definitely needed, or around the streets locally varying the route, clockwise or anti clockwise around the block.

This was the sun at just before eleven o'clock this morning. 

We risked going out for a quick walk and were lucky. It started to rain just as we  got back home.
 

We made cheese scones for lunch but had eaten them before I thought to take a photograph, they were delicious.

I've been sorting out the Christmas decorations and gradually putting them around the house.  I was pleased to find my little singing shepherd.

I bought him from a shop in Stratford-upon-Avon some time in the late seventies or perhaps early eighties. We had probably been to see a play but I can't remember which one, we were also Christmas shopping because I remember the lights in the darkening streets as we emerged from the theatre in the late afternoon . He is actually a candle snuffer.  I remember there were other nativity characters to choose from but he appealed to me then and I still like him.

Finding the shepherd candle snuffer reminded me that I also bought a little dish from the same shop as a present for my Mum.  Of course it is now back with me and full of memories. 

Meanwhile, in the garden, little Snowdrop shoots have begun to emerge from the damp soil. Signs of hope, of new beginnings, at least one small thing to look forward to in the new year. 

 

Scents of the Season

There are quite a few delightful aromas around at this time of year to make us feel festive, even in these strange and troubled times.  

Sweet evocative smells of childhood Christmas.  Pink sugar mice, marzipan and chocolate. 

Herbs and spices, dried fruit and mixed peel.  All things citrus.  Coffee, hot chocolate and mulled wine or cider.  The kitchen aroma of mince pies fresh from the oven and gingerbread biscuits too.

The spruce smell of the door wreath.

I expect you all have a favourite.

 

This year we will miss visiting Little Moreton Hall and Haddon Hall for their Tudor Christmas events and displays.  Below are some photos taken in past years.

 

Little Moreton Hall near Congleton, Cheshire.

Haddon Hall, near Bakewell, Derbyshire

 Time now I think, for a mug of tea and a mince pie.

New Foxes

 Updates on last Friday's post.

Foxes are back but it's a new pair.  

They appeared on our wildlife camera last night.  Just look at the rain!

These two seem to have taken over from the two older foxes.  It has happened before when familiar foxes move on and new ones take their place.  They don't have a long life span especially in urban areas, perhaps two or three years.

In other news the gas people are stopping at the house next door and the rest of the road have to wait until after New Year. 

Still no post, not even junk mail.  The parcel of fruit teas cannot be tracked and the parcel from a friend, sent on 26th November, still hasn't arrived.  We posted all our cards on Monday morning so lets hope they get there in time.

Last year we couldn't be bothered to struggle to get the Christmas tree out of the roof space since then it has been cleared out and the tree left where it could be easily retrieved.  Today it was brought down from the roof space so that we can decorate it a few days before Christmas.

I've found one of the boxes of decorations for the tree.  Now where is the other one?

There was a letter in our newspaper this morning which ask the question 'Do I have the oldest artificial Christmas tree'  the writer's tree was thirty years old. I have an older one. 

Tucked away in a cardboard box alongside my childhood teddy bears is a very small tree bought for my first Christmas in December 1950, I would have been almost four months old. 

 

Into December

As it is Friday here are five things from this week

 The Calendar has turned to the last month of the year.

The four weeks of national lockdown ended on the 2nd December and we are now in tier three, so there are still many restrictions. Just as we could possibly go a little further afield than a nearby walk, although of course still within the city, the gas company who have been working in the area have reached our corner and will dig up the road outside our house, we will have walkways to get beyond the garden gate on foot but the car will have to stay put for a few more days.  The heating will have to be turned off for a while too, I hope it won't be for too long.

We received our first Christmas Card (hand delivered) on 29th November, so it's now time to think about Christmas cards and letters.  I started yesterday by writing the envelopes.  Today I will write the greetings inside the cards and put them in the envelopes then split them into three piles, local to be hand delivered, those than can be sealed with just a personal note on the card and lastly those that I will send with a longer letter which will probably be written over the weekend.  Of course the moment it is needed the printer has decided it has had enough and won't work, so  the letters will have to be hand written. 

 

Above a photo of an old postbox in Buxton taken in 2018.

 We have huge problems with post at the moment. Letters and cards are takng over a week to reach us.  We still haven't received a small parcel a friend told us they had sent over a week ago.  From comments on our local neighbourhood forum people seem to think that the explanation is staffing levels as postal workers are either off sick or self isolating as other family members are ill or have symptoms. They do work hard and have done through this year especially in difficult circumstances.

Christmas baking has been done over the last few weeks.  The cake first, then the pudding and lastly mincemeat made with the vegetarian suet we had bought for the Christmas pudding before we changed our minds and used another recipe with Spelt flour.  We used this recipe (halved) - here.

We've been stocking up on tea and coffee.  We are still using loose leaf tea to avoid tea bags.  I have English Breakfast tea in the morning and a combination of Earl Grey and Assam tea at lunchtime and in the afternoon.  Paul drinks fruit teas and one he purchased recently had a seasonal ring to it.  Partridge in a Pear Tree.  It has lots of lovely seasonal ingredients - pears, apples, rosehips, cinamon, cloves and figs but thankfully no partridge.

 

There haven't been many visitors to the garden lately.  The wet weather has put them off.  No foxes or badgers for over a week.  We are hoping that all the road works and heavy machinery haven't stopped them getting to us although it is the time of year when foxes do move around a bit more looking for mates. Up until last week the older fox we had treated for mange was visting at lunchtime for a few dog biscuits but he's not been seen for ages.  Several local cats, grey squirrels, collard doves, magpies, goldfinches, chaffinches plus great tits and blue tits make up the rest of the visitors.

 

It's going to be colder this weekend so stay safe and warm.

Ordinary Things

Times are difficult for most if not all of us at the moment in fact they have been throughout this very strange year. Events have hit some of us harder than others so it is good to dwell on the ordinary, everyday things that get us through each day. Yesterday was a typical day.  We woke to a light frost which soon melted away as the sun came out to brighten the dull morning.

 

Milk and a newspaper were collected from the local Co-op

 

and fruit and vegetables bought from the local farm shop.

We were home in time for coffee and the crossword in the newspaper and to peg out the laundry I'd left whizzing away in the machine whilst we were out.

There was time then to take our neighbour's little dog for a walk.  She can't walk him now as she has MS and is confined to a wheelchair.

 We took him by Sammie's Pool and over Fenpark. The longer walk over Berryhill Fields is waterlogged and too muddy for a little fluffy dog.

Then it was back home to warm soup and a bread roll. 

This post is just a tentative step into blogging again as I still have problems with my eyes if I am on the computer for too long.  I have been following your blogs and looking at your wonderful photos even if I can't always read all of what you have written about and comment on it.

 

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me to see how I'm getting along.  

Five from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I've been away from the computer for a while whilst I get used to the new situation with my eyes. A couple of weeks ago, when I was coming back from the hairdresser, I noticed that the kerb edges were running together and that our hedge was across the front of the house rather than down the side of the garden.  I was hoping it was just a temporary thing but going out in the car (as a passenger) the next day it seemed that cars on the opposite side of the road were crossing to our side not only that they were doubled.

  Panic set in, I was triaged to a local optician and given an eye test.  To cut a long story short I have double vision because the muscles in one of my eyes have failed and so my eyes are working separately rather than in unison.  I have to have special glasses made and they will be ready in a couple of weeks time so I'm struggling until then with an eye patch on one eye.

Anyway hopefully the new glasses will work.  In the meantime we had tickets booked for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where we met with a couple of friends keeping the new rule of six down to just four and wearing masks most of the time except over coffee and lunch.

Here are five photos from the special exhibition there by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos.  She uses fabric, needlework and crochet alongside everyday domestic objects like saucepans, wheelhubs, mirrors and telephones.

Here is a - link - to more about her work. 

I'll add the photos I took below.  Five and then a collage of five more seeing as it is Friday.  No words as it is quite a struggle to see what I'm doing.

I'll catch up with comments both here and on your blogs when I have my new glasses😎

The week so far

I was so pleased to spot this Clematis flower as I'd thought the plant was lost after it had been put in a pot when we had a new front fence a few years ago.  It hadn't flowered for a while but this year it has.

The squirrels have been using an old tree stump behind the shed to crack open conkers from the Horse Chestnut tree just over the fence.

Three firsts this week.  The first time since lockdown that I have visited a post office, a hairdresser and a cafe.

I needed a haircut and I had to post a birthday present so we decided to venture to the city centre.  After I'd walked the circuitous one way route around W H Smith's to the post office counter I didn't have to wait long to send my parcel.  It was a good job I went in at that point as when I passed by just under an hour later the queue was around the shop and out into the shopping centre.  I'd toyed with going to the hairdresser first but was glad I hadn't.  I arived at Supercuts not knowing how the system of booking in and waiting may have changed.  Luckily I seemed to be the first there and went straight in.  I had to swap my mask for one of theirs and sanitise my hands, I was them covered head to foot with what seemed like a large plastic bag which was ripped off and disposed of as soon as my hair was finished.  The hairdressers were cheerful and glad to be back at work even though they couldn't have the radio on just in case they were inspired to sing along to the music. Whilst I was in the centre I noticed that The Body Shop store had closed down.  I've been using Body Shop products since the late 1970s and shopping at that shop for over twenty years.  As the next nearest shop is quite a few miles away in a designer outlet shopping centre, I may have to rely on online shopping for now. I feel quite disappointed and saddened by this.

The next day we went up to Bridgemere Garden World to buy a few breadmaking items from Lakeland but they didn't have what we had gone for.  We decided to try the cafe and see what the procedure was.  We had to wait to be taken to a table, once seated we gave our order and filled out the track and trace form.  We kept our masks on until we were seated and put them on again before we stood up to leave the table but many people had their masks under their chins or hanging off one ear. Anyway the coffee and tea cake were delicious.

Meanwhile in the garden the Hydrangeas at the front of the house are still looking good even though those at the back have lost their colour.

These last strawberries, from the farm shop, were still delicious and not watery at all.

The weather has been warm and sunny the last couple of days and I've enjoyed being out in the fresh air.