Colour to cheer and inspire

On a dark wet February Saturday morning it can feel like Spring is a very long way off.  The garden is already sodden with rain and then the snow and sleet start.  None of it is laying, but the weather keeps me in the house yet again.  Luckily there is some sunshine in the form of the seville oranges I am making into marmalade.  Seville oranges and their perfumed bitter flavour are one of those rare completely seasonal items - they are only available in January and February here, so that means a couple of weekends of making marmalade each year.

 

In spite of my impatience finally the marmalade reaches setting point and I wonder why no recipe ever tells you quite how long this will take.  Many of them suggest boiling for 15 minutes which is a complete nonsense!

 

As its so grey and cold outside, I've made sure there are flashes of colour inside Hazel Cottage.  Although spring isn't here yet, there are splashes of spring colour to cheer and inspire.

 

 

 

Whilst waiting for the marmalade to boil up, I watched the birds in the garden frantically flutter around in the snow and sleet and daydreaming about all the flowers I hope to grow in the summer.  I really want to be better at growing from seed and in my plans I dream of a warm golden summers day sitting in the garden surrounded by flowers and bees and  butterflies.  In the meantime  I must get on and make the patchwork cushion I started before Christmas.....

 

 

"Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour."  - John Boswell

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds and baking

The snow has disappeared from Hazel Cottage already, almost as soon as it had arrived.  This meant that Mr C managed to dig over his veg patch and start preparing for the new season.  I had a look to see what was growing in the garden and noticed the beginnings of the bulbs just poking through last years dead leaves.  I have grand plans to grow a lot of flowers this year and am hoping that the slugs and snails don't thwart my plans completely!

We took part in the RSPB's Great Birdwatch this weekend and studiously wrote down the highest number of each kind of bird we saw in our garden over about an hour.  We chose the time after we've replenished food and stood back.  And I don't think I've seen so few of our regular birds!  We often have a full garden of birds after feeding but they obviously don't want to be part of the birdcount and hid away.  It was an interesting thing to do however.  Our eventual count was 4 blackbirds, 1 robin, 2 goldfinches, 2 blue tits, 2 woodpigeons, 1 collared dove, 4 crows, 2 great tits and 1 dunnock.  After we had finished the watch, a group of woodpigeons and finches fluttered into the garden.   Of course the robin was around most of the time as he seems to appreciate our gardening efforts.

I also made a date and walnut traybake from my new Mary Berry baking book.  This was actually great fun and rather straightforward and tastes nice too.  I'm hoping to work my way through the book and eventually attempt the more complicated recipes.

Here is one of my favourite pictures from last week of the snow

January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow

The snow and cold weather have finally arrived.  After a warm wet December, it seems only right somehow.  As soon as the snow arrived we were out with our camera.  Its a very odd dull light that makes everything look monochrome during the day, and yet at night the snow creates its own glowing light.  The trees were looking particularly enchanting; snow looks so pure and beautiful, I feel its not worth thinking too much about the slush and the coming thaw that makes everything look tarnished and grubby again.

January is here, with eyes that keenly glow,

A frost-mailed warrior

striding a shadowy steed of snow.

Edgar Fawcett

Of winter's lifeless world each tree

Now seems a perfect part;

Yet each one holds summer's secret

Deep down within its heart.

Charles G. Stater

 

The snow is lying very deep.
My house is sheltered from the blast.
I hear each muffled step outside,
I hear each voice go past.
But I'll not venture in the drift
Out of this bright security,
Till enough footsteps come and go
To make a path for me.
- Agnes Lee

 

 

Bare branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow.
- Nelda Hartmann

 

 

And in the garden at Hazel Cottage, everything is covered in snow and we've increased the amount of food we put out for the birds.  The blackbirds and robins and blue tits are coming to the feeders often and the woodpigeons are ever present.  Only the joyful yellow of the winter jasmine is peeking through the snow.    Spring feels very far away...

 

 

 

 

New Year Walk in the New Forest

After several weeks of rain and miserable weather, suddenly on New Year's Day, the weather was bright and beautiful.  We decided that after the Christmas celebrations and all of the food and staying indoors, we needed a walk.  Edith Sitwell wrote 'Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.'  Whilst I agree wholeheartedly, there is nothing like a winter walk to blow away the cob webs.

The New Forest looked at its most stunning, I never tire of the soft glowing winter light this time of year.  Ever since our walk the weather has reverted to dull, cloudy and mild, so by posting these pictures, I am reminding myself of that lovely day!

Sparkling clear light and very long shadows

The gorse bushes in flower

Silver birch trees

The whole area was dotted with newly made ponds of water caused by the incessant rain.  It was rather marshy in places.  We discovered some lovely funghi, some growing from the dead gorse

Yellow Brain Fungus

And some growing from felled logs

Now that the decorations are down and the feasting has ended, I am hoping for some nicer winter weather so we can go on more walks and spend some time clearing our ever messy swamp of a garden.

Happy New Year!

Christmas wanderings

Suddenly its almost the end of the year, and the sixth day of Christmas.  December seems to have passed by in a complete whir.  This blog posting is a pictorial representation of the last couple of weeks...



Walking when the weather has briefly been dry

Visiting National Trust houses

Baking and cooking

Making time for contemplation

Christmas entertaining at home

Visiting family and other animals

Relaxing at home with tea and mince pies

So here's hoping you are all having a merry little Christmas and will have a wonderful new year.  See you in 2013....

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum...

It is always a special day when we go to choose the Christmas tree and decorate it.  We are especially pleased with the tree this year, its over seven feet tall, and a lovely shape.  It amazes me every year how many people say they don't want a real tree because of the mess.  To me, the whole point of a Christmas tree is that it is bringing greenery inside the house - a very old tradition itself.  Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a real tree!  We will make sure we do as TS Elliot says and be "taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree."

 

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.  It may weave a spell of nostalgia.  Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.  ~Augusta E. Rundel

Days of frost and candlelight

Now that it is December and we've had some quite deep frosts it feels like autumn has gone and winter has arrived.  I've been ill for the last couple of weeks so my intention to start tidying the garden hasn't quite started yet.  And now its almost Christmas and the garden appears increasingly forlorn.  However even in the cold, beauty is found in the frost and ice

In all the rush and busy chaos of the run up to Christmas, its even more important to spend time in nature, watching the seasons change.  At Hazel Cottage, the hazel tree is now almost bare.  The bare branches make it far easier to see the teeming bird life that bounces around the bird table.  The blue tits and great tits are frequent visitors in little gangs and we've seen a wren and dunnock recently too.  If we are still and quiet, they ignore us and carry on with their feeding.  The fearless robins appear regardless of what we do, although I imagine they are disappointed when we just walk through the garden and don't dig over the soil for them.  And the minute we walk back into the house, the blackbirds appear, the pigeons flutter in and the squirrel steals peanuts from the feeder again.  I love the idea that even when we aren't there, the garden is still teeming with life.

Our advent candle

Winter-Time
   
by Robert Louis Stevenson   

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,  
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;  
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,  
A blood-red orange, sets again.  
  
Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;  
And shivering in my nakedness,  
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.  
  
Close by the jolly fire I sit  
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore  
The colder countries round the door.  
  
When to go out, my nurse doth wrap  
Me in my comforter and cap;  
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.  
  
Black are my steps on silver sod;  
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;  
And tree and house, and hill and lake,  
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.