In Anticipation

The garden has come alive, with songbirds, squirrels, rabbits, and the resident possums..

 Bluebirds are feathering their nests, in anticipation of the next generation.

So much activity fluffing and feathering. 

 

 

 

 

 

For winter's rains and ruins are over,

And all the season of snows and sins;

The days dividing lover and lover,

And time remembered is grief forgotten,

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

~ Algernon Charles Swinburne

Returning

Two days of continuous rainfall, water standing ankle-deep, I'm beginning to think a pair of webbed-feet would be fitting.

Temperatures are unseasonably warm, and will remain so throughout the week.

There are shoots popping out of the ground everywhere, which is a little discerning, since we are still in the depths of winter, and snow is still a possibility.

I think Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humor.

Row, row, row your boat......

 

 

 

 

Me And My Shadow

Tom-Tilly spends most of her day shadowing Oliver, even when he's sleeping. We are convinced she has imprinted on Oliver as her mother, especially as she was such a tiny little kitten when she first appeared from living beneath my potting shed.
It makes us smile, despite Oliver's lack of reciprocation, he knows he's loved, and allows her to eat from the food bowl first.

Comfort Food

 

 

Today is a typical dark and dreary start to February, there's not a ray of sunshine in the sky.

I'm making a Shepherd's Pie for supper to cheer ourselves up.

A concoction of ground beef, onions, carrots, and peas cooked in a beef gravy and tomato sauce, with herbs and spices; then topped off with mashed potatoes and browned in the oven until the potatoes are nice and crusty.

I buy the Colman Shepherd's Pie mix, available through Publix grocery stores, on the English import isle.
If it's not on hand, then the gravy part is made with oxo's or beef bouillon cubes and tomato paste, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and parsley.

 

 

Shepherd's Pie was the first meal I cooked  as a newly wed , it remains one of my husband's  favorites to this day.
It will be accompanied by boiled cabbage, mashed it with lots of butter, and fresh pepper, that's how my mum used to serve it.

Serve with a slice of pickled beetroot or a few pickled onions on the side, and a nice crusty loaf of bread.

Yum.