King Winter is now in the land

We are very lucky here and haven't suffered from any flooding.  It does feel however that we've had rain most days since before Christmas.  Until recently we haven't really had much of a winter, the odd warm weather has made it feel like a perennial autumn.  Then suddenly winter has arrived and we are getting frosts and sunny days.

 

So in order to make the best of the beautiful wintry weather, we set off early for a walk on the South Downs this morning.

 

 

The frost covered everything, and glittered and shone, even the grass was tinted with silver and white.

We walked through beech tree avenues, and across farmland where only recently deep ridges of mud would have made it difficult to walk through.  Now they are frozen hard with puddles now sheets of ice.

There was a lovely light through the trees, and we saw a number of robins, finches and blackbirds along the way and possibly a bird of prey far into the distance.  We also saw a yellow headed bird which I think was a siskin on the edge of the woodland.

The hedgerow was filled with plenty of berries, often seen to be a sign of a hard winter.  I read recently that it is more a sign of a warm autumn, so I'm not sure what is true now!

The walk has made me feel quite enthused about perhaps doing more painting although trying to recreate the frost and ice is somewhat beyond my talents...

 

‘King Winter is now in the land.

He reigns with cold and freezing hand.

He makes Jack Frost touch nose and toe,

and brings us bright and shiny snow.

M. Meyerkort

Back to the grindstone...

Anyone who reads this blog knows that we both are home lovers.  We've put a lot of effort into making our home how we want it and we love doing things at home - watching old films, cooking, sewing, reading, gardening.  We had two whole weeks off for Christmas and had such a lovely time.  We did the social bits, went for lovely walks as well as lots of reading and watching films and obviously a lot of cooking and baking.

Now I'm sat eating the last piece of Christmas cake at my desk at work (having a short lunch) my mind is now yearning to be back at home.  I'm not yearning for Christmas particularly - much as I love that time of year, I don't mind when it is over as I'm excited for the next thing to happen. I just want to be in our cosy home...

Our new sofa (note the patchwork cushion made by me a year or two back!)

Our lovely study where we read/fall asleep

My craft area.  Note the pile of material waiting for me to make it into something

 

The pile of books I received for Christmas.   Hurray!

I've only finished one of my Christmas books and am reading the A N Wilson biography of Queen Victoria which is really interesting.  I'm also really looking forward to reading 'We Made a Garden' by Margery Fish, which explains how she created a garden from scratch in the 1930s.

I made a rather odd purchase in a charity shop recently.  Its a very small suitcase, possibly used for a musical instrument.  I liked the look of it, but what sold it to me was the old material British Legion Poppy that was hanging off the handle.  Yes, yes I know I have issues!

At least it is Friday and we have a relatively quiet weekend ahead.  Tonight I plan to make some homemade lemonade out of the Christmas leftover lemons and we have lots of dates and nuts to make something out of.   I love weekends!

A 'typical' Sunday at Hazel Cottage

I was walking through the house earlier and took pictures of some of the interesting and random things that are currently happening at Hazel Cottage... 

Soil warming on a radiator ready for seeds

Rye bread proving in the washing basket

Parsnip wine fermenting under the desk in the study

Old books rescued from a jumble sale

My still unfinished patchwork picture in the sewing area

Daffodils on the hearth

Rye bread just out of the oven

In the garden, the crocuses are basking in whatever sunshine they can find, the snowdrops are nodding in the wind and I spotted two robins on the bird table this morning - almost time for nesting to start perhaps?

Wan February with weeping cheer,
Whose cold hand guides the youngling year
Down misty roads of mire and rime,
Before thy pale and fitful face
The shrill wind shifts the clouds apace
Through skies the morning scarce may climb.
Thine eyes are thick with heavy tears,
But lit with hopes that light the year's."
 Algernon Charles Swinburne, A Year's Carols: February

 

Like these frail snowdrops that together cling

Its been such a stormy month or two here at Hazel Cottage (and for most people in the South of England).  At the weekend I managed to get into the garden on a sunny moment very briefly in between rain showers and plant a few very late tulip bulbs and sweep up some sodden leaves.  Before I ran back into the house, I noticed that the snowdrops had appeared just in time for Candlemas:

Amongst all the storms and rain, the simple snowdrop peeps through the leaves and twigs.  I read the other day that the snowdrop, which appear in the midst of winter is a symbol of hope.  There is a legend that the snowdrop appeared when Adam and Eve were about to give up hope that the cold winters would ever end.  An angel appeared and transformed some snow flakes into snowdrops - proving that winter does eventually give way to springtime.

William Wordsworth wrote a poem called 'On seeing a tuft of snowdrops following a storm' in 1888.  It seemed rather apt that he too had experienced stormy winter weather and that the snowdrops symbolised hope.

'Like these frail snowdrops that together cling,
And nod their helmets, smitten by the wing
Of many a furious whirl-blast sweeping by.'

It is traditional that the snowdrop appears around Candlemas, on 2nd February.  I had just started this blog when I read Jane's lovely post about candlemas, which I recommend if you want to know more.

Our garden fence - we wont be putting it back up until we are sure we wont get more wind and rain!

The saying goes 'If Candlemas be fair and clear,  there'll be two winters in the year.'   Rather worryinging, Candlemas was quite a sunny pleasant day in the midst of all the storms.  There are more high winds and heavy rain forecast for this coming week.

 

Signs of a spring yet to come

 "The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."
-  Gertrude S. Wister

Our annual birdwatch

Each year the RSPB ask people to spend an hour making a note of the birds they see in their garden and then upload the results to their website.  We like to take part and do our bit to help out as we feed birds in our garden all year round.  I think last year's bird watch was the quietest day bird wise in the whole year, but it was soon after we had snow so they had an excuse. 

This year was far busier, although the blue tits we usually see every day were a little shy.  The idea is that you make a count of the most of each type of birds you see in the garden at one time over the course of one hour.  This is to stop you counting the same birds several times!  We fed the birds and went back inside and started our count.

Our count came to:

1 crow
2 wrens
1 robin
5 blackbirds
3 collared doves
9 starlings
5 goldfinches
2 magpies
1 woodpigeon
1 sparrow
2 blue tits

 Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art. 

Izaak Walton

The rain it raineth every day

Although the torrential rain and strong winds have lessened and we have even had one or two lovely sunny days, I don't think there have been many days recently where it hasn't rained. Indeed it has mostly rained constantly every day.  I'm aware that to some people around the world having some rain for a few weeks isn't a major issue when you have hurricanes, snow or drought.  However for our generally temperate non-extreme corner of England, it feels rather excessive. 

The garden is so wet and marshy only the birds and the squirrel are braving the lawn.  I've still not planted my tulip bulbs other than a few in a pot in the front garden, and I have no clue what is happening to the end of the garden other than the fence panels have mostly blown down.  Both we and the garden feel rather beleaguered right now.  After the light and brightness of Christmas, January and its incessant rain and wind is quite dull and drear.  The old house even has a few leaks and it feels as if we cannot escape from the rain.

All this rain reminded me of a verse of a poem called Winter Song by Katherine Mansfield:

"Rain and wind, and wind and rain.
Will the Summer come again?
Rain on houses, on the street,
Wetting all the people's feet,
Though they run with might and main.
Rain and wind, and wind and rain.

In all the gloom, I am continuing with my patchwork picture, slowly putting the hexagon patches together.  I don't know whether I am imagining it but I think my sewing is getting a little bit tidier as time goes on.  I don't think I will post a close-up picture though!

 

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

-  John Boswell

  

Due to the rubbish dull weather I haven't taken many photographs lately.  I did take a few pictures on the couple of lovely winter days, my favourite of which is this one.

Rather than depress everyone with my negative ramblings, I want to end this post with a lovely positive quote from one of my favourite writers, Jerome K Jerome:

A new life begins for us with every second

Let us go forward joyously to meet it.

We must press on, whether we will or no,

and we shall walk better with our eyes before us

than with them ever cast behind.

 

A misty winter's morning

Walking on a misty December morning, all was silent other than the birds echoing in the trees around us.  The sun struggled to rise about the trees, the mist shrouded and clung to the ground and it felt as if the world had stopped briefly. 

Suddenly the leaves are almost gone from the trees and winter is seeping in.  Before all the midwinter celebrations, before Christmas and all of its light and warmth is upon us, its a time to stop and watch the seasons change.

The March of Winter?

Just under a week ago I was in the garden in shirt sleeves with the sun beating down on a beautiful warm day ripping up vast swatches of ivy and preparing the garden for the growing season.  Today we are reminded that winter hasn't gone quite yet, we woke up today to snow flurries and a fiercely cold wind. 

Daffodills amongst the snow flurries

It feels like winter this year has been icy and neverending, we've had snow several times which isn't usual this far south in England.  Spring will come of course, and we only have to see the flowers that are starting to bloom.

The lovely primrose and lesser celandine peeking through the dead leaves, as if to prove things will grow again.  

When down visiting in Devon we've sometimes heard buzzards circling high overhead, but rarely see anything.  I took this appalling picture which actually shows a buzzard in between the trees.  He did swoop a lot lower but I wasn't fast enough to catch him.  The exciting thing is that when we returned home, we actually saw a buzzard flying high over our garden at Hazel Cottage.  

Spot the Buzzard!  - no prize I'm afraid!

We made some halloumi cheese at the weekend - even though I did everything correctly, when we came to fry the cheese I was convinced that it would melt, but it worked pretty well and kept its shape.  I need to work on draining the whey a bit more, but it otherwise worked.    I will post pictures to this blog soon!

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...

 

 

 

 

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.

The absence of snow

Last winter was filled with inches of snow, even as far south as Hazel Cottage.  This winter, whilst the rest of the country is covered in at least a dusting of it, we are back to our usual absence of snow.  It seems that because we are on the south coast and seemingly also sheltered from the worst excesses of weather, we are only used to very occasional, fleeting and insignificant snow.

Our garden this winter

Our garden last winter!

Despite the absence of snow here, the weather has been cold and bitter and the birds in the garden seem increasingly ravenous.  In addition to our usual regular visits by blue tits and robins, we have seen more of the blackbird population and some great tits have appeared and even possibly a song thrush at the top of the hazel tree.  Collared doves and  pigeons are often in the garden until they are startled by the crows and magpies.  We are only in the garden to feed the birds at the moment, everything looks slightly desolate and abandoned and only than the tiny green shoots of daffodils indicate that spring will come, eventually.

Whilst we are waiting for spring (or at least more light and warmth) to go back into the garden, we are still busy in the kitchen.  I made my first batch of marmalade recently, using the wonderful bitter seville oranges that are in season for a short time in January and February.  I used a recipe from the River Cottage Preserve book which seemed to work well, although I must learn to be more patient when it comes to jam and let it boil for longer than I think I should and not decant and have to reboil it again later.  Despite my initial impatience we now have seven jars of very thick cut seville marmalade in the store cupboard, hopefully to last us until we have fruit to make jam.

A Frosty January morning

As I woke and looked out of the window this morning it finally felt like winter. After all the snow and ice of last winter, this winter has been very damp and mild so far.  The garden was covered in a beautiful silver frost and the grass crunched under foot.  Even the weeds looked beautiful.

Our hazel tree which had provided such a bounty in the autumn, is now bare apart from a few catkins and the blue tits flittering in and out of the branches.  I could hear a robin nearby and even a frog in the garden next door. The only plant flowering at the moment is the winter jasmine, with its cheerful yellow flowers, and the flowering currant bushes are starting to bud.  As if right on cue, a gardening catalogue dropped through the letter box when I went back into the house to warm up.

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, January Morn  



The quiet days of Christmas

I have always loved those days between Christmas Day and New Year.  These quiet days of eating leftovers, tidying up and reflecting are as much Christmas to me as feasting and singing carols.  The tree and decorations are still up and the candles still burn softly.  This Christmas has been a real homemade one here at Hazel Cottage, we have made our own Christmas pudding, mincemeat and mince pies, and Christmas Cake, with homemade marzipan and royal icing.  Our pickles and preserves made with the glut of Summer and Autumn are now coming into their own; the pickled onions, quince jelly, chutney, pickled beetroot and damson jam all graced the Christmas table.



Our Christmas table



Although we are still in the dark days of winter, it is now that we start planning for the year ahead, what vegetables, herbs and flowers to plant, what things we want to buy for our home when the car boot sales and the markets begin again.