In so many ways this has been a miserable January.
Heavy skies and grey days.
Still in lockdown.
And then then after two years being very careful...covid takes me down and a fortnight later the potter seccumbs as well.
But the bonus is that we can still walk out of the kitchen door and down the path into the
Hidden Garden.
It's taken on this title recently because of the number of locals who are amazed when they realise that an acre of the old Penketh Heath still lies up the narrow lane that separates our property from the terraces next to us.
...in the herb garden the oriental poppy leaves are rimed with frost...
...and on the wood shed japanese chocolate vines twist and dance...
...while the old bench waits for a gardener to take some rest... come the spring...
...honesty pods, fireweed seeds, teasels...
...much is left in the flower beds to dry and feed the birds with winter...cold and grey...
... on the summerhouse roof, mosses and sedums continue to thicken and hopefully become a green roof eventually...I throw extra sedum from a sedum garden up, though come spring nest building, the birds often throw it down again!
...the work at Knepp...rewilding..say that it's the thickets that are the nurseries for self seeded trees...and these trees are more likely to survive free from viruses rather than the imported ones.
...light is what the photographer and the artist look for...so I go out and find the light of the season..
...this winter light so different from the harsh light of mid summer,,,or the golden light of autumn...
..but I also go out to find the first flowers of the spring to restore my soul...soft pink early winter flowering japanese cherry here...
Health restored...free from virus
Soul restored..spring comes slowly, slowly...
Thankful again.
