January Nature Review

Hello Lovelies , hope you are well.

Unfortunately there has been some unwellness affecting us this week . My Mum has been in hospital,rather poorly and ,though things seem to be improving, it's always a worrying time.

So to take my mind off these things I've been baking ,and walking and now I'm talking to you lovely lot :0)

After my first Nature post , inspired by this lovely book.....

I've been paying more attention to the Countryside around these parts .I'm trying hard to find the beauty in drab old January and I'm pleased to say it seems to be working.

Back in the middle of the month, the 14th , I ventured to the other end of my village . The Sun was fairly watery but the long  shadows and misty distance were pretty nonetheless......

Can you see the ridges in the field ,in the foreground of this picture? ( you can click to enlarge).......

They are also in this field ........

 I'm pretty sure this is a legacy of Medieval farming, were the land around a village was "common land" and everybody could work a strip. Quite amazing to think that all these hundreds of years later these ridges are still apparent.

A couple of days later (the 16th) we had a frost . As soon as I dropped the boys off at school I headed out with my camera.
Up the road a little ,to my new favourite off road spot.......

I never really see anybody else here , which is great for playing about taking pictures without feeling daft. So over the style ( green with moss and icy with frost) I went.....

to be greeted with .....

WOW , It was even more beautiful in real life .......

What a magical , mystical morning . It was all gone within 30 minutes and I'm so glad I didn't miss it .

Close too , the frost on the Brambles and the moss was quite lovely....

All the while I was walking I could here a loud birdsong. I'm afraid I'm pretty rubbish at recognising birds from their lovely singing , but I want to try and get a little better at this, so I recorded the song using the video setting on my camera the used this site to identify the bird as Coal Tit .
Here's Edith's picture of this bird and its cousins ( painted in 1906)....

I think it's so comforting to realise that at least some of today's nature is pretty similar to Edith's time .


Today, despite it being rather dull and drizzly I headed back to this footpath .
Mr Coal Tit wasn't singing but the horses were friendly , hello guys, sorry I don't have a carrot !...

Looking down I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of green.....

I know these are weeds , but it was still great to see the signs of new growth, and one mans' weed is another mans' flower, don't you agree ?

Speaking of flowers , I spotted I my first Snowdrop on the way home....

Sorry for the rubbish picture but I had to include it .Snowdrops, Ahhh I really adore them. Another thing that made me smile was noticing the buds on the trees and hedges, this one even had the beginning of leaves emerging , yippee :0).......

I am enjoying finding natures beauty in winter,it can be truly stunning, but I'm still really looking forward to the spring :0)
Jacquie x
P.s. Mum's just phoned to say she can come home  :0)