New door

Yesterday we had a new front door fitted.  I can hear you saying, in this weather?! Yes, we are obviously nuts. Lack of a door for much of the day meant that the house became bitterly cold. Trouble was, the old door had taken as much objection to the cold and wet as I have. Swollen joints, creaks and groans from both of us. What a tussle it had become to get the blasted thing to open, and then twice as hard to shut. It was a solid old door with handsome fittings. But it's goodbye to all of it because we've replaced it with (oh, wash my mouth out) plastic. And the plastic door comes with some very ordinary, modern furniture. There was a time when I would have objected strongly but now I've conceded defeat, I just want a door that doesn't sulk or fight back but one that opens, closes and locks with ease.
We had to clear the area ready for the workman. We moved from a farmhouse to this cottage twenty years ago and are still not quite accustomed to the lack of space. Don't mention the word, declutter. (I have a super friend who is an organising consultant. She worked in Japan for several years and her business is called taisei, the Japanese word for system and order. She's very sweet-natured so she doesn't look me in the eyes and tell me to get some control.) So, we took the pictures off the walls and moved the carvings from the floor. How strange it looked without them.
Today the new door is fitted. The surround needs to be painted but things have been put back, more or less, in position.

Phew, door sorted, just before the next deluge arrived.

It's Shrove Tuesday. I hope you're eating pancakes!

Keeping out the cold

We are getting through a lot of wood this winter. Our small woodburner is lit in the morning and by the time we flop down in the sitting room in the evening it has built up a luxurious level of heat . We had another delivery of logs this afternoon, I think it's the fourth truck load.

Himself helped the woodman to chuck the logs into the store. The sun was shining and the wind had dropped. A nice day, but you can see from the roof on the store that where the sun hadn't shone for long a dusting of snow remained.

Himself was well wrapped up in his Rupert Bear scarf!

It's heartening to see spring flowers appearing.

Primroses by Maisie's grave.

Even the rhubarb is pushing through.

By 'eck, yon Yorkshire rhubarb's tough!

Friday Skywatch

As well as a ridiculous amount of rain, we've also had some fierce winds over the last few weeks. No tree branches down in the garden this time, but the neighbour's chimneystack gets the brunt of the west winds and has become somewhat the worse for wear. They put scaffolding up on Wednesday while we enjoyed a rare sunny, dry day, but then the wind got up and it has been blowing merrily ever since. Very sensibly no-one has climbed up to do the necessary work. Perhaps next week!

Sharing my skyline 

with Skywatch Friday.

Tonight in the garden

Ten per cent bigger,

ten per cent brighter,

the 'blue' moon

seen through a tangle of winter trees.

In the garden

When the sun comes out, even briefly, it's hard not to want to be in the garden. It looks so inviting seen through the landing window.

We wake most mornings to a hard frost that has whitened the ground, but once the sun is up it soon clears away. I enjoy this crisp, cold weather so much more than dank and dark. Once well wrapped up I've been outside to do a bit of tidying up in the veg beds. The soil isn't really fit to be worked on and my boots are quickly clogged, but the exercise and the sight of freshly turned soil pleases me. (Although I do get into trouble for spreading mud on the paths!)

The netting arrangement to keep the pigeons away from the brassica is not a very pretty sight - but it works!

It's cheering to see the daffodils pushing through the earth around the fruit trees.

The greenhouse is absolutely crammed with plants. They will have to wait in there for a good few weeks yet.

Photos yesterday from my neighbour in Yorkshire. She was waiting for the gritting lorry to arrive!

I would like to be there - I think it looks beautiful.

Friday Skywatch

A poor apology for sunshine appeared for a brief while this afternoon and tempted me out of doors. It's a still, damp day with remnants of the morning mist.

My bones ache in weather like this.

Even so, it's good to be out.

Half past three and already the sun is sinking.

It's a rather monochrome world in Blighty at this time of year.

The leafless trees leave plenty of sky visible for Friday Skywatch.

They have felled a number of the mature trees around the lake and it opens the space up quite a bit. But when I  look at the cut trunks and see the rotten core I understand why it was necessary.

Getting back to normal

Feasting is wonderful, but only for a short while, a time that's special, and then it's good to get back to normal behaviour. (I can boldly state that now that I've devoured every bit of chocolate that was in the house!) The Christmas turkey served us well, it lasted through several meals and a good amount of the remaining breast meat is stored in the freezer. The bones made plenty of stock for vegetable soup.

We are harvesting a good range of vegetables from the garden, sprouts, parsnip, swede and turnip, spinach, leeks and cavolo nero.

I would like to be outside sorting things out, the garden is unkempt, it's rain- soaked and windblown and not an inviting place to be. Cold weather is promised so I'm contenting myself with hunting out the fleece to throw over the citrus in the greenhouse. They are already coated in dispiriting black mould which I've had no success in removing.

I've taken down the Christmas decorations and the house looks strangely bare. The nativity set is packed away and the usual windowsill objects put back in place.

I've bought some shop roses to cheer the place up.

£2 worth of pleasure!

I'll just have to hunker down for a while. These winter months are not a good time for me.

But, on a more cheerful note, the tips of daffodil shoots are already appearing under the apple trees.