Enjoying the winter sun…
#winter #WinterWalks #PortMeadow #Oxford #OxfordOnSea

After the wind and the rain, it was a day of clear skies, cold air, and flat calm. Went for a walk down my the Thames aka. Isis which was inseparable from Port Meadow beyond…
#winter #WinterWalks #PortMeadow #Oxford #OxfordOnSea

Love this place so much. #10years ago this year this is where @vnemma and I got married.
#Repost @ntwales
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Craflwyn, Beddgelert

That feeling on Boxing Day after you’ve had one too many mince pies and the only chair that will do is one fit for a giant #NTWales #NationalTrust #Wales #Cymru #Craflwyn #BoxingDay #walk #winter

Little squiggles harvesting ash keys #squirrels #nature #winter

The upside to #snow in March is that you get to see shy send reclusive Fieldfares when they start to frequent your #urbangarden… #fieldfares #birds #winter #spring @chris.packham @lindsey_chapman56 @bbcspringwatch

Signs of Spring in the cold, winter’s day… #witchhazel #gold #winter #flowers

Cold and crispy evening walk at Somerton canal… #winter #frost #canal #walks

Like it’s sister book, Autumn, this is not just a collection of poetry, prose, and non-fiction but a narrative of the darkest season. It takes us through the cold winter months through, frosts and fog, and flurries of snow. We feel through the words the hard, frozen ground under foot, and the wildest of storms.

Diary entries keep us locked to natures calendar with its stories of winter survival and migratory escape. There are possibly more contemporary accounts in this volume than in Autumn but the writers still range across the centuries, and with the citations and dates not given until the end of each piece it is sometimes reassuringly hard to tell, and often a surprise!

The last few collected passages gently tease us of winter’s passing, and the promise of the season to come, echoing the hope that we all feel at the end of darkest of seasons.

#1HappyYear Day 358: Another #winter #sunset… #100HappyDays

I found out later that emej had been outside in her pyjamas and wellies at half past midnight last night fashioning the little man after I had admitted to regretting not getting round to making a snowman this year.

This evening, after I got back from work I decided, with a forecast of rain and a thaw, now might be my last opportunity, so I made a companion for Emma’s, even if it was dark. Hopefully he might be still up for taking daylight pictures tomorrow morning.

I feel better now!

By 8 o’clock the snow had started to fall, and by 10 o’clock the inches were mounting up. by 2 o’clock in the afternoon work was beginning to close already because of the weather. I had definitely made the right decision; being far more productive at home than I would have ever have been had I gone into Oxford and spent however long on the road trying to get home again.

When Emma got back from work – her last day at Bicester Vets – we went out again and she drove me to the butchers in Launton to get our meat, I had a walk around the local park in the snow before retreating to the warm indoors to wait for the shopping order to arrive which arrived only 2 minutes late! Tomorrow, we will have to venture out to get our veg from the market, and if we can, a new bale of hay from Fringford. A walk in the snow would be nice. I think my favourite image of the day was the one above of the witchhazel seemingly flowering out of snow.

I love snow.

After the floods come the frozen fields down by the river Cherwell and the Oxfordshire canal at Somerton, and scene for a brisk and cold walk in the winter chill. Then we retreated back home to dress the tree. It’s always such a pleasure to get the boxes of decorations down out of the loft and rediscover our favourites, and how and when we came by them.

35 years ago, whilst living in America, I made this one out of an old clothes peg and a doily…

And the light was gorgeous. The kind of light that makes you feel good about the cold. They’ve also recently rebuilt a wooden bridge to complete the lakeside walk which is a gorgeous, traditional build of oak frame and pegs construction. Today’s trip will probably be the last time we approach the gardens from the Oxford Avenue approach, as the opening of the new New Inn/Grand Avenue approach is imminent.

We discovered too, that the Gothic Temple which we’ve long admired is actually a holiday rental from The Landmark Trust, although at 800 quid for about 3 nights! And it would be damn cold in winter up there on the hill with all that glass. Looks nice though, inside…

Back at the garden centre, we collected the plants, four dogwoods and a Chinese Rowan tree to transform the front garden, where two years ago we cut down the leylandii. I also treated us to a witchhazel for that splash of winter colour. It will always remind me of that day we visited the actual Green Knowe – when Tolly first arrives at Green Knowe in the books in the middle of winter he has never seen flowering dead twigs!

The Other World
Originally uploaded by shepline on 14 Jan ’08, 10.53pm GMT PST.

In the afternoon, whilst Emma had a little snooze and watched the birds in the field opposite, I worked on my novel, making changes to the master file, revisions that I had worked on week’s ago. I am so far behind.

For dinner, Emma cooked her speciality Vietnamese spring rolls and a stirfry. Delicious. And then we snuggled up on the sofa and watched some of Children of Green Knowe and The Box of Delights. A perfect end to a perfect day, and proof that simple pleasures can be the best and the most romantic.

After an early lea (*see entry dated 8 December) we headed out through a lowering sky with large black birds gathering in the sky with the skeletal frames of tree sihouetted against the rain, and onto the M4 into London. And so after a while we arrived at the Natural History Museum and met up with Sue and Steve and Debbie and Matt for ice skating. To say that I was nervous would be an understatement. I was terrified. The only other time that I have been ice skating was 29 years ago, when I was five and holding my mummy’s hand on pond in New York state…

Originally uploaded by shepline on 10 Dec ’07, 11.38pm GMT PST.

Originally uploaded by shepline on 10 Dec ’07, 11.22pm GMT PST.

Originally uploaded by shepline on 10 Dec ’07, 11.23pm GMT PST.

Originally uploaded by shepline on 10 Dec ’07, 11.20pm GMT PST.

…it was great fun though! Yes, I fell over three times, but I didn’t do myself any injuries, and I went on to do four unaided circuits of the rink. Okay, so I wasn’t the most graceful creature on the ice, but I did it! When we walked past again later in the evening on our way back to the car, I just wanted to get out there again and have another go!