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

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.

 

Purr-fect

 

 

This beautiful sweet face belongs to my granddaughter's cat, Cooper.

I've introduced you to him before, you wouldn't know by looking at him, but he's a senior citizen, closing in on seventeen years old.

He's a spoilt kitty, but who could resist.

 

>^..^< 

 

Longing For Spring

I think I'm suffering from cabin fever.

Yesterday, I ran a few errands, and took a nice long drive through the country roads to the post office in the next town.

Despite not visiting there since before Christmas, people remember my name, it's a lovely and welcoming feeling.

I wish Spring would hurry this way, sunshine, warm soil and longer days, I'm looking forward them all.

 

 

The Old Barn

The nesting season is upon us.

People and animals alike, hunkered down against the elements that Mother Nature throws our way throughout the next few months.

A warm barn, always a welcoming  privilege, to those creatures great and small.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tons upon tons the brown-green fragrant hay
O'erbrims the mows beyond the time-warped eaves,
Up to the rafters where the spider weaves,
Though few flies wander his secluded way.
Through a high chink one lonely golden ray,
Wherein the dust is dancing, slants unstirred.
In the dry hush some rustlings light are heard,
Of winter-hidden mice at furtive play.

Far down, the cattle in their shadowed stalls,
Nose-deep in clover fodder's meadowy scent,
Forget the snows that whelm their pasture streams,
The frost that bites the world beyond their walls.
Warm housed, they dream of summer, well content
In day-long contemplation of their dreams.

 

                 Sir Charles GD Roberts                        
                                               

 

Iced Over

If given the option, I would have chosen snow.

Soft, white flakes blanketing the ground.

Instead, we are covered in ice.

Trees, houses, vehicles, bird-feeders.

No snowballs today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunshine

Two glorious days of sunshine.

Oliver soaking it up......

Tomorrow snow.

 

Winter Friendships

Taking a few days off to catch up on overdue visits with dear friends.
Share a cup of tea, a piece of homemade Christmas cake, and swap Christmas gifts.
A lovely start to a brand New Year.
Be well !

 

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

~John Boswell

Raty, and Mole visiting Badger ~ Wind in the Willows

It Is Christmas

It's pouring down here today. So much so that we are under a flood watch through much of Saturday.

Not the best kind of weather to be finishing up the last of the shopping, but if you are all done, then it's the perfect day for nesting.

 

 

 It is Christmas in the mansion,
Yule-log fires and silkin frocks.
It is Christmas in the cottage,
Mother filling little socks.
It is Christmas in the highway,
In the thronging, busy mart.
But the dearest, truest Christmas
Is the Christmas in the heart.
Author Unknown