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| Winter sunrises are the best! Morning splendour in our backyard, with the remnants of snow from the day before |
Just a very brief post as I lament the passing of another winter.
It’s been a particularly wet and grey six months in south-east England, and I am no doubt singular in my reluctance to bid farewell to winter; everyone else is heartily sick of the damp and the cold. The crocuses, snowdrops and daffodils are all flowering, heralding the impending arrival of spring.
However... reluctant I am, particularly as this is our final winter in Frensham.
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| Frensham Heights School’s main house and front lawn, blanketed in frost on a sparkling winter’s day in January |
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| Low winter sun illuminates the frosty landscape viewed from Frensham Heights’ lawn |
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| Winter shadows on frosty ground at Frensham Heights School |
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| Hoar frost - increasingly more rare as England becomes warmer. It was -7ºC on this beautiful morning |
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| Leaves and grass rimmed with hoar frost |
Each year we seem to get fewer frosts and these days we’re lucky to get more than one or two flurries of snow throughout the whole of winter. So whenever the mercury does drop more than a few degrees below zero I enthusiastically don woolly hat, gloves and coat, and set out to admire nature’s wintry bounty before it melts away. It’s well worth the effort.
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| Lime tree in the nearby village of Frensham, upper limbs groaning with mistletoe and branches glistening with ice in the sunshine |
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| A neighbour’s house. It has one of the best outlooks in the area and the sloping roof always looks so pretty when we get snow |
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| I have always loved Suffolk sheep - those gorgeous black faces and legs! I came across this one on one of my regular routes through nearby farmland (public right of way) |
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| *sigh* And this was our one and only proper bit of snow in more than a year |
One chilly day in early February we drove up to the new house in Ledbury, and because it had been a cold week the interior was a little slow to warm up… until we got our fuel stove going! Yes, we know that fuel stoves pump out particulates into the air and we do not plan to use it very often. But - my goodness! - what a treat to have a blazing log fire on a wintry day.
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| We recently used our fuel stove for the first time - it was lovely! |
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| Our stove has a clever design which keeps the glass front free of soot |
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| Snowdrops are out in abundance - heralding the end of winter |
So nothing too exciting to include in this post. I just wanted to share a few photos that hopefully will convince some of the doubters that winter is a season that can provide many pleasures.
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| Another glorious winter sunrise in our backyard |
Until next time,
- Maree xo
