Day 33, year 2 - The heavens open once more.
In the east farthing the snow is falling, but with the pennines protecting us in the west we only have….rain. Which makes a change.
How it rained and the wind blew last night and this morning. The sort of weather that makes you want to turn over and pull the covers over your head as it did its worst outdoors.
Worse is certainly what it was when I ventured out. Puddles in fields had become ponds. Everything sounded of drip and squelch. Perhaps that snow might have been better after all…..
Day 26, year 2 - Unexpected arrivals.
The sudden cold snap and snow of a month ago seem a dim and distant memory now. Just as last year, this winter is once again unseasonably warm. If anything, even warmer than last year and its effects are starting to show.
It was the bubbling song of a blackbird that first caught my attention today. Not a call, but song, the sort of song you only expect to hear at the onset of spring. Looking down and the effect of the high temperatures is very clear. Those are daffodils and crocuses breaking through already….and its winter.
Its still January. Still the first week of January no less, the first week of the year, and yet underground and in the trees nature seems to think otherwise. Things aren’t right. Should the cold suddenly return then there will be problems indeed.
Day 365 - Snow surprise
Well the snow certainly hadn’t appeared on any forecasts before it appeared outside my door, which left me rather surprised!
Only a light dusting, no more than half an inch, and yet it was plenty enough to transform everywhere it had touched. Remnants of garden plants, fences, trees, grasses and even derelict spider webs were all refocussed and seen anew through a white filter of unexpected beauty.
(This post was sat in my drafts last night and I was unable to publish, due to Tumblr’s downtime. Sad to miss the appropriate day, but posted all the same.)
Day 352 - Days of deep frost, getting closer
Today was the first real frost of the season, not a gentle dusting, melt when you touch it frost but a deep, crunchy frost that weakened sunlight cannot so easily dismiss.
There’ll be many such days ahead, days when the earth turns to iron and everything wears furry white gloves, but this first crunchy frost is no less beautiful, especially when seen up close and each tiny cube of frost turns into a tumble of white blocks.
Day 350 - The land groans beneath it all
Rain, rain, rain. The story of the days once again, as it has been so often this year. My corner of my shire has been fortunate to escape flooding, but still the land groans beneath the weight of it all. Every nook, cranny, hole, depression, divot or wheel rut is filled to the brim with water.
Splash, squelch, squish at every step. The land wants to rest but instead seems to be being beaten into surrender.
Day 349 - fractured domes of spun ghost
Mizzle. Bleak, blank, grey, endless mizzle. Even the rain seems so tired of itself that it can’t muster up the energy to rain properly on a Monday morning. The trees, now stripped all but bare and dyed into silhouette by the cloying dampness in the air, have become the poets fractured domes of spun ghost.
As the mizzle marches into the distance it becomes it becomes like plates of coloured glass. The spun ghost becoming truly ghostly before fading entirely into the lightest greys. I know it should feel heavy, oppressive, depressing…..but all I can see is the delicate beauty of it all.
Day 260 - a tale of 2 skies
What a storm it was, blowing in from nowhere into a calm day. In moments rivers were running and puddles became lakes. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, hail bounced on the ground and chaos rained.
Then, in a handful of minutes, it stopped and the battle was joined in the sky, thunder clouds being pushed back by sunlight and fast forming cumulus. The storm clouds flashed with lightning in protest before they were finally defeated and peace reigned once more.
Day 250 - drip, drip, drip.
There’s some folks in the shire as don’t have the hobbit sense they were born with! One sunny, hot day and loud proclamations are made about the arrival of the summer, spreads of food are laid outdoors and the next day….drip, drip, drip once more.
It’s as if folks don’t know that a shire summer is like a shy, nervous deer, you have to sneak up on it very carefully, stay downwind, not make any loud noises…..
Day 231 - drip, drip, drop, almost August showers
A day for huddling and shivering. Cold and rainy days are back with a vengeance.
Day 184 - Clouds gather
The winds keep blowing, the clouds grow and obscure the morning patches of sunlight and the rain returns after only a few hours respite. A storm is coming and it seems set to stay.
