Friday, 6 February 2015

A Winter walk to the Hill

Hello Lovelies, fancy coming for a walk with me this bright sunny morning? 
It's a chilly 2 degrees Celsius outside, so grab your coat, hat, scarf and warm woolly gloves. We are off to explore the same paths I walked in Summer HERE.

You can just see the little hill  in the distance........


Let me zoom in so you can see where we are heading.........

 It's only a couple of miles.

The path is in shadow but the low winter sun streams through a gap in the hedge..........


This is the way, out of the chilly shade and across the farmers field........


Where the mud is frozen solid and the crops are covered in frost...........



 Then through the pasture at the bottom of the hill, where Willow trees grow on the banks of the brook......


ooh look, there's lots of little birds in the grass, we can take a photo and try and identify them when we get home..........



 Now we are in a wooded glade.........


here the twisted tree makes a natural bridge over the little stream........



Don't worry, we don't need to try and shimmy across that....look this is easier .........


Then we are walking down a road........watch out for the traffic..........


Look what some people have dumped in the bushes....this makes me both sad and mad........


But lets not focus on the negative.

Lets attempt to capture the  beauty hidden within the nodding snowdrops.........


And wander down a quiet lane .........


passing  a bright red post box in the old brick wall............


Oooh, a Victorian postbox, you don't see those very often............


If we look up we can see interesting chimney pots on the big house..........


an if we look down we can see delicate little Aconites  shining prettily...........


Here's the Silver Jubilee bench and the phone box library I found in July...........



Right, enough dallying, lets get marching up through the fields. We are close to the hill now.
 How lovely it is to be outdoors on such a crisp and gloriously sunny winters morning, when the sky is blue and the countryside looks so pretty.............


Oh look, horses near the stile. Lets talk to them and hope they are calm.........


Hello gorgeous, such a gentle horsey, with friendly eyes.........


Over the stile, we can walk up through the sun and frost bleached stubble field.........


Till we reach the hedge, where plump clusters of Ivy berries glow in the sunlight..........


We are as high as the hill now and I'm feeling warm after the effort of the gradient. Lets start the homeward stretch. Mind you don't slip on the frosty road........


Or fall  into the icy water under the Lichen green hedge............



Nearly back now, are you ready for a hot drink?


We are leaving behind nothing...not even a footprint in the frozen mud.......


But we can take away photographs and memories of a simple winter walk. Thank you for keeping me company.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as me.

Oh and I nearly forgot....the little birds....they were Redwings
Jacquie x

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

In the First week of February I'm.......

........smiling at snowdrops in the church yard


.........Putting the oven on to warm up  do some baking...........


.....Eating spicy gingerbread biscuits.........


.........Loving the wintry tree silhouettes.........


....stopping the car on the way home from work to photograph the full moon.........


.........and playing with yarn :0).......



I've gathered together all the colours needed for my ripple..........


They are based as closely as I can manage on the colours in my rug........



16 colours of yummy Stylecraft special. How I love to see them all lined up like this. I had to replenish my stash a little and I have added a couple of colours I havn't had before. Petrol and Stone are the new kids on the block.........


The complete line up, from bottom to top is
Burgundy,Raspberry, Pale Rose, Copper, Gold, Sage Green, Meadow, Khaki, Teal, Petrol, Lavender, Grape, Plum, Stone and Camel.

Here's where I'm up to right now...........


I'm still making the odd mistake with counting, but I'm finding that checking the second increase stitch is made between the two stitches of the second increase stitch of the previous row, EVERY TIME I get to the top of a "hill" is the best way to ensure I'm on track...........


And there's no denying these ripples are finding their gentle, rhythmic ways into my heart.......


Crochet ripples do seem like the perfect winter craft project.
Jacquie x

Sunday, 1 February 2015

The North Wind Doth Blow

Hello Lovelies,
THANK YOU  ♥ ♥ ♥ for all your kind comments on my Springtime blanket. I feel very blessed to have this space to share my crochet creations with like minded folk. Your encouragement along the creative journey and your appreciation of the finished project adds SO MUCH to my enjoyment of this gentle hobby.


On Thursday we were, once again, treated to a few flurries of the white stuff. My poor garden is so messy, but it still managed to look pretty with added snowflakes...........

This winter is turning out to be properly wintry right now. It's quiet a contrast to the unusually mild "non winter" we had last year. I'm happy to have defined seasons and a little snow is what winter is all about.

But, oh the poor birds...it's no fun for them.

This picture of a Blackbird makes me smile......it looks like this bird is saying to the jolly Buddha  " I don't know you're so happy about"...........


As it snowed heavily I looked out on the garden.....and the hungry birds........

There are two in this photo.

Soon the shower had passed and I ventured outside to put some sunflower seeds on our garden bench.  A sweet little Dunnock caught my eye as it rested in the Buddlia bush...........


And soon another bird had discovered the newly scattered seeds........Was it a Dunnock too?......


I couldn't see clearly, but looking at my zoomed in photos afterwards I was surprised to see this cutie had a red spot on his head..........


Time to get out my Bird Identification books...........



I was delighted to discover my sighting was a new bird to me....a little Lesser Redpoll

Feeding the birds is one of my favourite things about winter.

 Mum bought me this Derbyshire calendar and how I've loved looking at this stunning snowy photo of Owler Tor throughout January..........

And all  month I've been recording my miles walked on this calendar.

How happy it makes me to see that my total distance for January is 80 miles.

 As I mentioned before I'm attempting to walk 1000 miles this year...which means I need to walk 83 miles a month. So this month I'm just a little short on miles...but I hope to catch up in the spring.
 I'm including all outdoor walking of 1/2 a mile and over.
Parking half a mile from work means I clock up a mile on work days ( I actually do a lot of walking about indoors at work but I'm not including that) and I'm happy to see there are only two blank days on my calendar, despite the lurgy visiting youngest and myself.

There's always something new to see on a walk, and this family of wellies  made me smile yesterday...........


But gosh it is chilly....I need to walk fast, then come home to a hot drink and some cosy craft :0)


I'm loving these Ripples....and setting into the rhythm.
Indoor colour, especially in winter, is such a happy thing.

I'm feeling totally inspired by THIS lady's wonderfully colourful paintings at the moment

Enjoy your Sunday lovelies.
Jacquie x