There's Snow Escape

A week last Wednesday we had snow. Since then it has frozen and turned into compacted ice. The Pennine hills and the Lakeland hills look stunning and continue to do so.
Looking towards Blencathra also know as Saddleback.

The Lakeland Alps 

Round topped hills.

Folded hills

Jagged hills.

Snow emphasises shapes and contours

Valleys and peaks

Snow clad fields.

The long view

Deep crunchy snow.

This snow was 20cm deep

At the entrance to Rookin Farm.

The hill shape is like a child's drawing

We saw people sledging and skiing. In Bryson's coffee shop in Keswick there was a snow castle cake.

Cake creations

Snowdrops just peeping through the depth of snow.

Snowdrops struggling to keep cheerful

Crocus like little jets of flame struggling for air.

Two lonely crocus

Snow on the lawn that has turned to ice.

Icescape

Snowdrops in the orchard of the Artful Garden.

A carpet of snowdrops

As the ground was semi frozen I added cow muck to my vegetable beds in preparation for this year's harvest. It is best to do this when the ground is partly frozen as then you do not walk off the plot with boots clarted in mud. A little robin came to investigate for worms.

A opportunist robin

Crazie Maizie is not looking very happy in the cold weather.

 Baby it's cold outside. It's no good when you a frozen to the spot and can't adjust your clothing

This is my latest pottery tile. I have been experimenting with slip trailing.

Daffodil design

Miscellaneous Musings

The weather is defiantly colder and we have again had several days of intense frost and lots of rain.

The beauty of a rainbow

The colours soon begin to fade

I planted my soft neck Solent Wight garlic this week. Last year I had an excellent crop with this variety and I have kept one bulb back in case it does not germinate as you can keep on planting garlic until February.

I have found a mouse has been eating the bulbs I planted so I have put netting and an upturned hanging basket over the top of the plant pots.

The ivy on the walls is looking very pretty.

Pincushions of ivy seed heads 

This is a posy I have made with my dried flowers.

Simplistic beauty

I was given these dramatic allium heads by a friend.

Fragile allium heads

A spoke of allium seed heads

I love the negative space within each fir cone.

Zigzag patterned fir cones

Looking through a centenary copy of 'Woman's Weekly' I found these adverts. How times have changed.

Fancy this diet?

Why do I not look this glamorous when I do the housework?

Wow what a hairstyle

Which of these faces represents the man in your life?

Take your pick

These are some of my pottery tiles. I have on the beam of my garden shed.

Inspired by flowers

Flowers and seed heads

Butterflies and flowers

I took this photo of a dramatic sunrise last Friday. The colours in the sky change so quickly within minutes.

Stunning

Wet and Wild and Warriors

This week the weather had been mixed. On Tuesday the sky was all dark and gloomy when I got up, later in the day we had a very vocal thunderstorm, deluge rain, thunder and lightening. It rained so hard that there were rivers of water running down my drive that have left a deposit of grit and earth. The poor verbascum could not cope with the power of the rain and I watched from the window as the petals continuously cascaded to the ground. I managed to get a photo before all the petals had made a yellow carpet in the flowerbed.

Yellow Verbascum

In the hedgerows there is some beautiful meadowsweet, creamy white with a delicate perfume.

Meadowsweet

The bonny blue cornflowers are now coming into flower on the railway bank.

Blue cornflowers with white daisies

Poppies, although they are so fragile they look so lovely, especially red poppies.

A  post box red poppy

The feverfew has been in flower for a while now. It seems to have grown extra tall this year. I love these delicate little white and yellow sunny flowers.

White petals with yellow pincushions centres

Hysslop a deep blue herb has now come into flower.

Hysslop

I like nasturtiums and I use the nasturtium seeds in my pickles. They come in some lovely colours.

Mahogany Red

Yellow

Can you see the bumblebee?

The marguerite daisies are now all in flower. Their simplicity adds to their charm.

Marguerites

I have harvested my broad beans, some bean pods are blind ie. devoid of beans, I do not know what causes this to happen.

Broad Beans - yum

The damson trees do not have many fruit.

Unripe damsons

The raspberries are starting to form on the Autumn raspberry bushes. I am able to harvest these until we get our first heavy frost, usually in September.

Now we just need the sun to ripen the fruit

I have picked some of the blackcurrants and although it took ages to top and tail the fruit the result is 14 jars of delicious jam. 

Delicious

The sparrows and I are having a battle with the peas. They roost in the house eaves and like nothing better in the morning than to bob under my net. I have now added another net so we will see what happens tomorrow.

Pea pods

These are some of my pottery tiles that I have on my shed wall.

Inspired by flowers

I love this colour combination

I am very proud of my terracotta warriors. I made them several years ago. The 'old warrior' got left at the pottery (where I go for my classes) over the cold Xmas period.  We did not realise until too late that water in the clay froze and as it defrosted parts of the warrior slid off. I was able to salvage the figure and regard it as looking more authentic with parts missing.

Old Terracotta Warrior

 
I then decided to make the 'young warrior' so I could complete the design, hence the reason why I have two warriors. 

Young Terracotta Warrior

The Warriors