Just one day in February.

 On Friday we drove up the M6 to the old house in West End Morecambe and popped the heating on to warm it up.

...then  switched on the electric blanket to air the bed...

...and off to Arnside in the wind with big skies and rainbows over the Bay.

A train goes off to Whitehaven again.

It looks like a toy train as it trundles over the bridge on it's way up the west coast of Cumbria.

We sit and stare and promise...we'll do that trip this year.

 

...my mum loved seagulls...her favourite book was " Jonathan Livingston Seagull"...

Rosie bought it for her.

...we used to watch them from the old caravan at Ballyferris...fighting the winds and soaring over the wild seas.

...we were just in time to catch the "bore" as it powered it's way up the Kent ...roaring like a tractor...

...sudden downpours...

...caused many rainbows...I love a rainbow...it tells me " All will be well"...

(Julian of Norwich...thankyou..)

...then back to the old house and fish and chips with the blessed son...who now lives on The Bay.

A big fire in the grate and rugs around the knees and we talk of this and that ...

and are thankful.

A Record of January in the Hidden Garden at The Potters House Penketh.

 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!

...low sun lines the grass..

..a thicket sprawls at the bottom of the field .. 

...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.

Crosby Beach Walk...

 The second Monday in January 2022 and it's cold and damp and grey.

But you just got to get out there while you can...so we did.

Popped to Asda for some petrol and off along the M56/57 to the Liverpool Docks road and left turn to Crosby.

Walking boots on, warm scarf, gloves and hat and camera at the ready...well you never know what you might be able to snap on the beach.

I'm a gatherer

always have been

so here's a few of the recent collection from the beach today.

To be so close to a city on a beach is interesting...the driftwood and litter, thrown up by the winter storms make it a very different beach to Morecambe Bay...or Southwold where we also love to wander.

Gaps have appeared in the dunes where the winter winds have blown the sands inland...

The Liverpool docks in the mists across the waters of the boating lake...always a stunning view.

Nice to hear that a couple of my "Gatherings" pics will be in an exhibition in February...

...shells...of course!! 

*

All of these taken with a Canon EOS 5D...some on macro.

That's as technical as I get!!

Morning View Jan 5th 2022

 I often post a pic straight from the bedroom window to Instagram...

"Morning View"

It helps me to see the change in the garden from the window each morning.

Here's today.

...and another...

Already 5th January.

The willow is a favourite tree in the garden..I watch it dance in the breeze.

Walking the Old Year Out...

 Though the morning sky was dark the day lightened around midday...

... so we parked our car by Sankey Bridges and walked the canal path ...

...to the old Ferry Tavern at Penketh Marina and Yacht Haven.

...we crossed the track...we're told it will be the new fast line to Liverpool...

maybe..

We're now in another environment..one of water and reeds...of water birds and marshy woods.

A land of silvery seedheads and swaying water weeds...

..where a low old year sun casts it's light on the sedge and reeds...

..and everywhere light on water sparkles beyond the dried leaves...

..a tanglewood...

where seedheads hold tight on to tall stalks ...waiting for  new season's growth.

The St Helen's canal flows to the Mersey past Fidler Power Station...soon to be dismantled..probably for yet another new housing estate...people must live.

...the weavers of Penketh...at work on the alder branches...

We make it to the Mersey and take our rest by the old pub.

*

"If you stood on the bottom rail of a bridge, and leant over, and watched the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you would suddenly know everything that there is to be known". 

(Wisdom of Pooh...A.A.Milne)

Happy New Year to you all...

...and many many thanks for reading this blog of my random thoughts and dreams.

the sun stops...

 

Thoughts at the Turn of the Year… when the Sun Sits Still.

"Then Joshua said..."Sun, stand still".....Josh.10:22" 

15.58pm

 last walk down the old field path

My thoughts begin with water in the rill

Full-ferned and moss-muddlied. There sits

A crow on the topmost level of

A bowing birch. Above it still the gibbous moon

Silver-sailing in a pale mourning sky.

 

the ever watchful crows

The magi of mushrooms and

Pale greenness of lichen and I am

Mind-spinning at the turn of the tired old year.

There a gathering of shining starlings

Sitting slanted on an earthen roof and

 

...so this is how the nasturtiums finish...

Wood pigeons murmuring a pied-melody

Where trees scarlet and leaves tumble.

..tumbling leaves and scarlet berries...

The turning prowls through my memories.

Sometimes there are assembling hours

And heaven beckons. Sometimes a glimpse

 

Of seedful poppies sinning in strawberry beds

Scattering feral banks on fecund land.

...the quiet strawberry beds...

So here's to the "Long Moon"to the "Cold Night Moon" to the coming again of "The Light"

Here's to the yuletide log...and the family feasting...here's to love and kindness.

To all.