Fighting against nature

It has been very cold since January has changed to February.  Every day is cold and often windy, making it feel bitter and we even had a little snow yesterday.  Our wood burner has really been installed in the best possible winter.  It has made such a difference to the cosiness and warmth in our little house.

The other morning I took a photograph of the back garden and the light was very strange and blue. It seems rather apt considering how cold I felt!

 

"There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow.  It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance."
William Sharp

It is so easy to want to stay at home and hibernate this time of year.  Going out of the house each morning to work has been a bit of a struggle!  We have been trying to make sure we do still go out and do things in the cold weather.  We went to visit Winchester Cathedral the other day, and in spite it being the cathedral I know best I still found some angles and features I'd not noticed before.

The Nave

Light from a window coming in onto a pillar

Guardian Angels Chapel

The cathedral was rather busy as it was an open day, but when you look upwards you can see a place of great beauty and stillness.  I've loved the guardian angels chapel for many years now, I remember being amazed at the 13th century angels heads on the roof.

This winter has been good for going on lovely wintry walks.  The frost and the mist has been rather beautiful.  Such a constrast to last winter which was windy and filled with torrential rain.

Low sunshine and shadows

Frost

Frost close up!

"Come when the rains
Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,
While the slant sun of February pours
Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach!
The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps
And the broad arching portals of the grove
Welcome thy entering."
-  William Cullen Bryant, A Winter Piece