The Growing Season

The new spring grass is growing at a phenomenal rate, I suspect it has something to do with all of the rain that fell throughout the months of February and early March.

 "April showers, Bring May flowers"

Except a little early....

 

 

 

Winter Moon

Our cold Winter days are finally becoming warmer, offering  some much needed  clean-up time in the garden.
Spring daffodills are waving their sleepy heads in the noon-day sun, and dusk is not appearing until the clock strikes 5:30.

In two short weeks we return to Daylight Savings Time, with Spring  just around the corner.
Later this evening a bright  Full Moon fills the night sky.

Magical.

 

 

Brightly the moon like a jewel is beaming,

White in the east, o'er a lone landscape gleaming,

Over the meadows and over the snow,

Glimmering, shimmering, silvery glow.

Low in the east, when the gloaming is ending,

Slowly this white winter moon is ascending,

Looming so large and appearing so nigh,

Satellite framed by a star-spangled sky.

High in the sky, with soft radiance teeming,

Nigh to the time when men, women, are dreaming,

Weird is her splendor on valley and hill,

Cold is her gleam upon river and rill.

Brightly the moon like a jewel is shining,

White in the west she is slowly declining,

Beautiful Moon ! Which beams gorgeous and grand

Over the homes of our own Native Land.

~Charles Nevers Holmes. 1926.

Rainfall

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......

 

 

 

February Days

 

 

 

Our days have been filled with glorious sunshine.

The daffodils are shooting up from the ground, offering the promise of spring.

I tidied around the porches and fiddled in the potting shed yesterday, it's hard to stay cooped up when the sun is shining.

Wishing you peace, in whatever little corner of the world, you call home.....

 

News From Gobbler's Knob

Rabbits have been making a show in the garden.

Nibbling on the new shoots of grass.

The songbirds are once again appearing , a good sign that life is beginning to awaken.

Punxsutawney Phil  has predicted an early spring, maybe in these southern states, the poor folks in other parts of the country, digging out of the snow, will be harder to convince......
We're having a balmy 67 degrees of sunshine today, how's that for a lovely treat !
 

Comfort Food

Today is a typical dark and dreary winter day,  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 crispy.

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 

 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.

Doc Martin Season 10 preview

• To help break up the monotony of long winter nights, our local PBS affiliate is treating its viewing audience to new seasons of beloved favorite shows.

  Doc Martin Season 10 aired this past Thursday, I'm already hooked.

  Thank you Public Broadcasting Service and our local Nashville Public Television.

  Check your local schedule for times and dates.
  
  

More Snow

I'm beginning to get cabin fever, and just as slightly warmer temperatures arrive, an entire new weather system is headed our way.
More snow, and sadly combined with frozen precipitation.
The school children have been afforded an extra week off school,  and yet their presence outside has been scarce.
Back when my daughter was young she would spend an entire afternoon outside with her neighborhood friends, sledding and building snowmen, only returning to the warmth of  home for a change of gloves, and some hot chocolate. Nowadays, it seems like the children stay inside and play computer games or watch TV.
Times have changed.

Talking In Their Sleep

"You think I am dead,"
The apple tree said,
"Because I have never a leaf to show -
Because I stoop,
And my branches droop,
And the dull gray mosses over me grow!

"But I'm still alive in trunk and shoot;
The buds of next May
I fold away -
But I pity the withered grass at my root."

"You think I am dead,"
The quick grass said,
"Because I have parted with stem and blade!
But under the ground,
I am safe and sound
With the snow's thick blanket over me laid.

"I'm all alive, and ready to shoot,
Should the spring of the year
Come dancing here -
But I pity the flower without branch or root."

"You think I am dead,"
A soft voice said,
"Because not a branch or root I own.
I never have died, but close I hide
In a plumy seed that the wind has sown.

"Patient I wait through the long winter hours;
You will see me again -
I shall laugh at you then,
Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers.

Edith Matilda Thomas  (1854 - 1925)

Boxing Day Silence