Is it always winter?


OK, that's enough now.  It has been beautiful and hard work, not quite in equal measure, but just tipping the scale on the side of beauty.  But now I have had enough.  I want to be able to go out without fear of slipping and sliding on the snow.  I want to see green instead of the endless stretch of white and black.


On Wednesday it was sunny and we made it up to the top of the hill.  Snow and blue sky is a lovely thing but even so, time for a slightly easier life I think.

When I am cold it is hard to remember how it feels to be warm and when the land is bleak and empty like this it is hard to believe that only last year there was colour and light and warmth and growth.  I have been looking back through my photographs.  Even last year when it rained so hard for so long, sometimes the sun did shine.


There were primroses.


There were pulmonaria and red tulips and the great fat upsurge of old fashioned peonies.


There were tulips, in the garden and in pots.


There were alliums.  I had forgotten.


And in the summer, the meadow flowered.

It will all come again.

Comments

  1. Very cheering! I must do the same, just to reassure myself that there will be some colour out there that isn't grey (in our case - no snow left, but plenty of rain)...

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    1. I suppose I should brace myself for the fact that when the snow goes it will be grey not green!

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  2. Your flowers are beautiful. I'm also really fed up with the winter - and the snow - (although the mud will be back once it thaws...) Can't wait for spring!

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    1. Mmm, and the mud. Plenty more scope for mud. Pretty sure there are some snowdrops out there though under the snow.

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  3. Your primroses are so cheery, I love them. Roll on Spring - hopefully we will be able to get out and about soon. x

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    1. I love primroses too. It always amazes me when I go to Devon and see them in the banks that they also grow well for me up here where the conditions are altogether harder.

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  4. Hello Elizabeth:
    Yes, it will surely all come again and how lovely it will be. But, for now, we revel in these days when one does not feel guilty about not weeding the garden!

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    1. I have to admit that no weeding is a big plus of winter. I do rather like the sense that I can wander round the garden and not find that something which was looking wonderful has tipped over into mess and chaos. The downside of course is that nothing is happening! Can't have it both ways I suppose.

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  5. Oh how I agree with you - I am thoroughly done with this grey weather and persistent snow. I am keeping sane by watching Death in Paradise on BBC1 on Tuesdays and imagining how good it would feel to be sunbathing on some hot tropical beach. x

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    1. Daren't even think about tropical beaches! If I did I would refuse to go outside again and the stove would go out for lack of logs!

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  6. One of the great advantages of writing a blog is to be able to visit summer posts in the middle of a bleak January day, and be reminded that Spring is not too far away. x

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    1. I really value my blog as a record of what happens. It's surprising how often you check on when you did something or what happened even three or four years ago!. Now that I have been blogging nearly six years I take real pleasure in going back and looking at things that I might never have recorded otherwise because they are the day to day, not the big stuff.

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  7. Yes ... had enough now ...

    Vicky x

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    1. And it's gone now. Still enough yesterday morning for visiting child to make a snowman and sledge a bit. Today all is green again.

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  8. I don't mind looking at snow, but I'm getting very bored with the physical restrictions it entails. Roll on spring - and perhaps I might even make it to Wales to visit you and Karen.

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    1. I really hope you do make it to Wales! That would be simply great. I would love to know how you are finding your big move to the country having done something similar a few years ago.

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    2. It would indeed be lovely to see you in Wales Victoria, although I suspect that you will find it hard to tear yourself away from your new garden this year! :)

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  9. Your garden flowers (to be, when they come again) are lovely. No, it won't always be winter and they're all busy beavering away underground.

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    1. Keep the faith! Not always easy when all is brown and grey and quite a lot of mud.

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  10. From someone who lives where it doesn't snow it does look wonderful and those Welsh Hills are to die for!!!!!!!!

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    1. Ir is very beautiful Susan. I would miss it if it never snowed!

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  11. This looking bakc at past photos of flowers seems to becomeing a general activity, certainly one I have indulged in. We don't have snow any more, so I can't really complain, except about the rain tipping down today which will make digging out new borders impossible. And apparently it is too cold to use the paint I bought to rescue the fence! Beautiful snow+sunshine photo, but I hope you too are snow-free soon.

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    1. Snow does have beauty which you can't say for rain. Mind you, I watch film of rain falling in monsoons in rain starved countries and see there is a beauty in it, just dulled here by endless familiarity!

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  12. I am desperate to see some green or even some blue sky. Temperatures are creeping up and it seems to be thawing, so I hope to be seeing some flowers emerging soon

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    1. I have snowdrops trying and some hellebores but am probably a couple of weeks away from them both being in full flower.

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  13. We had just a few hours of very soggy snow a couple of days ago, but the garden is still looking so miserable. With it being so wet I wasn't able to get out much in the autumn to clear it so there's a lot of very bedraggled foliage about.

    We just need a few days of decent weather to dry it out. But am I holding my breath?

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    1. Mine is bedraggled too. I manage to do a couple of hours yesterday but I barely made any inroads at all.

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  14. I have done a similar post reminiscing about my summer garden. The snow has lingered here but now I can hear it pouring with rain, so with a bit of luck the snow will have disappeared by morning. Your snowy pictures are really beautiful you live in a really picturesque part of the country, snow or no.

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    1. It is beautiful and I try not to take it for granted!

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  15. It feels as though it will never end - the top of one's head will never feel warm from the sun - the drive will never be navigable and the bathroom will never again be warm. Big sympathy from here, where today the thermometer hit 11 and the sun shone.

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    1. I always have this - a real difficulty in remembering how it was in another season!

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  16. It's been bitterly cold in New York this week (still is) but tonight we've had a visual uplift by the sight of very light snow falling since sundown. I expect it will all be gone by midday tomorrow, but it was actually please to walk home from the subway station with those little flakes drifting all around us. (Sidewalks were not slick tonight. Tomorrow might be a different story.)

    Your spring flower preview photos are fabulous!

    xo

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    1. I have been in New York when it has been so cold that my London winter coat was just not up to it! When you get cold, you get serious cold.

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  17. Thank you for the colour. Very much appreciated.
    All the rain has got rid of most of the snow and we now have a lightning storm!

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    1. Strong rain and wind today here too. No colours but grey and a rather dingy green!

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  18. It's good to have a reminder that spring will, at some point, arrive. Out in the garden I can see some snowdrop buds now that this week's snow has gone.

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    1. I have snowdrops too although only just coming out, and two winter aconite! Not a great return for the twenty or so I planted.

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  19. We may yet have a good dump of snow before spring is here -- we often get a solid snowfall in February. But the crocus greens are up, the viburnum bodnatense has been blooming for weeks, the buttery whorls of mahonia japonica ready to blast fragrance through the garden -- hope springs! And I hope for you that your snow will soon be replaced by green, although in the meanwhile, you've got a lovely view. . .

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    1. I have the viburnum too and a mahonia up in the wildness behind the house. I must remember to go up and have a look and a smell!

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  20. Oh yes! I have just been driven out of the garden despite today's sunshine and (patchy) blue sky by an icy wind that has Siberian permafrost written right through it like rock. After an hour of putting up with this I have given up. This isn't what life's supposed to be about. I did though come to the conclusion that I shall have to get rid of a medlar tree - about 5 years old. Any use? I could dig it up with the root ball in a large polythene sack and no doubt send it by courier It would need vicious pruning before hand but it might recover - they are very hardy and it flowered for the first time last year. Very pretty white flowers, well, blossoms really.

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    1. A medlar! Why are you getting rid of it? I would love it and if it didn't thrive, well at least we would have tried! So if you are serious, yes, let's have a go.

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  21. Hello from snowy Michigan! This is the part of the Winter that I hate and why trips to the Caribbean/Mexico are so popular. I miss the color more than the warmth. I often wonder why calendar publishers consider it necessary to feature photos of snow, wintery scenes for January. All we have to do is look outside. Give us green trees, vibrant flowers - please! Thank you for the reminder of things to come. As for Sunday in mid-Michigan, another winter storm warning with snow and ice.

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    1. I think you have a much harsher winter in Michigan than we do! At least our snow does not tend to last very long. Welcome to the blog too.

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  22. I loved the snow when it arrived but had enough of it quite quickly too. It went quite quickly when the rain came, and the resulting green landscape looked greener for the fact that we'd been without it for a while. It made me wonder how we'd feel seeing the green after months of white, like in some countries! The contrast must be amazing.
    Teresa x

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    1. I have noticed the contrast even after a week Teresa, although we now have the grey and green which merges into each other! Need some blue sky.

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  23. It is lovely to be reminded of summer warmth and colour in deepest January. I guess your snow will be gone now, replaced by the same sharp showers we have. It went overnight here and now we are back to floods. I keep wishing the days to warm up a little, but am trying to learn patience and the enjoyment of all seasons. It is hard work!

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    1. I know just what you mean about the ease with which you can wish your life away. I have got better and enjoying what is there and have even genuinely enjoyed the short days and the time by the fire. I just need to get out as well and move. Too much time sitting down makes me feel sluggish!

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  24. Your red tulip photos had the same effect as a couple of cans of Red Bull , this morning !

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  25. Lovely Spring pics Elizabeth - sadly not enough for me to feel the gardening spirit yet!

    No snow here - but still bitter winds and so much rain, and of course much water coming underground and through the garden from the snow melt. I am hunkering down in the studio.

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    1. I had a small stirring of the gardening spirit yesterday when the sun was shining and I was mulching hellebores which had some nice fat buds on them. Sadly it has disappeared completely again in the rain today.

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  26. What a warm sight to watch your pictures! I'm looking forward to seeing your garden at its spring prime again and soon! The snowy pics are beautiful too, although I am fed up with winter too. The view from the top of the hill is breathtaking!

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    1. Spring is definitely the best time up here. Your garden seems to manage to look beautiful for much longer!

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  27. I have almost forgotten just what a warm AND DRY day feels like....
    My old chickens have been dying in this bloody weather
    Hey ho

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    1. Our chickens don't like it much either - don't like snow, don't like rain. The grass in their (pretty huge) run is very worn and sad now. We need some new grass but then we will have to cut again!

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  28. Oh dear, is there any hope for me ... it is your first two images that filled me with longing! In my defence you had more snow on your Welsh hill than we did in our Welsh valley. But I imagine your lot has all gone now just as our little has. And the sun shone today :D

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    1. Ours all went last weekend. I do love it too, but only for a while!

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  29. Well I love to look at snow – on blogs that is. Although I would not mind seeing two days of snow here – we had two days two years ago but I doubt that we’ll get some this year. Here in the Deep South (Georgia,) it is rare. It has been a mild winter. I even saw an early azalea bush last week in a large garden.
    I enjoyed looking at your knitting.

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    1. Thank you! The idea of azaleas in flower seems very strange up here!

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