Spring and and not so much crafting

14th January


Blue skies in Winter are natures gift I feel.

After the twinkly Christmas lights that brighten up the dark winter months, January feels dark and drab and with our mad weather at the moment, more rain than in Noah's time it feels, one could be forgiven for feeling down in the dumps. BUT, here and there there are signs of a new season round the corner and every time I catch a sign my hearts leaps for joy. I am not a great gardener, though I admire beautiful gardens and brightly coloured plants and try my best to make something of our own little patch, but I cannot help but feel anything other than HOPE when a new shoot or bud appears.  Something about nurturing and expectations for the future, are you the same?

So far we have had indoor forced hyacinths, which have now finished.

Such colour in these bulbs at this time of year, really warms me

Every year, I buy a couple of three bulbs and have them indoors and when they are finished I plant them in the garden where they flower year on year in around March time.  I must have about 40 or so hyacinth bulbs from doing this for many years, double joy for inside and out! 





Then there is the pussy willow that has begun outside. On a beautiful but sodden day last week, I took myself off for a welly walk and came across the first of the pussy willow. Both the name and the look of this plant make me smile, does it do that for you too?   I could not resist but take a bit to have indoors in the study, I will enjoy it coming out fully little by little each day.

 

This week end, we travelled to the Peak district as my sister was having her emigrating party, a great time was had by all with tears and laughter. My family even had a sweep stake as to how often and when I would cry.  At different times during the evening, someone would come up and say sad things to me to see if they could manage to extract my tears, so that they could win the sweep stake!  I tell you families...  My sister and partner had put on a British dinner for everyone followed by American desserts, can you guess where they are emigrating too?

But the following day on our short walk, I even spied snowdrops beginning to flower how can you stay sad when you spot your first snowdrop?  How magical is that to see the first drops of the year, just love it.  We even were shown a dusting of snow on the hills in the distance, snow drops and snow...

After our walk we ended up in a lovely pub tucked away in the hills, where we had a delicious roast dinner in an oak panelled room with a roaring log fire, what more could you want?

My starter was more continental and tasty too, baked Camembert and was presented in such a lovely way...

And finally in my own garden Spring is trying to emerge, the primroses too are trying to flower, each day little by little Spring is trying to push away the winter.  We are not out of the woods yet, but there is hope and a freshness in the air...

As I was finishing this post, there was a knock on the door and I was handed these, saying that as my sister had emigrated today, perhaps I needed some sunshine...

♥Friendship♥