Thursday 26th February 2009

Wherever I am in the house I am never far from a notepad.



I love notepads and especially ones with pretty countryside pictures on them. We have them on the fridge, on notice boards, by the bed, on tops of bookcases, on coffee tables... Like I said, you're never far from a notepad in our house.

Wednesday 25th February 2009

Our Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) produced it's first flower of the year yesterday and today we have two more opening.


Whenever one reads about the "Christmas Rose" the authors of gardening books say the common name is derived from the fact that it flowers reliably around the Christmas Holiday Season. Not for me. Chrissie Harten in her diary for 2004 said - "This flowers every year for me, but in all the years I have had it, it has never, ever, flowered at Christmas! Mine usually flowers around February, a good two months after Christmas." That has been my experience every year as well.

Tuesday 24th February 2009

The first Daffodils in the garden bloomed today.


The Christmas Rose also opened and the Primroses which have been sort of half-open for weeks opened properly as well. They might have staggered their opening to allow for this blog showing one a day!

Monday 23rd February 2009

This is my first drink of the day. No, not a Vodka. It’s a soluble painkiller. Now I need a coffee....

Sunday 22nd February 2009

Jo doesn’t like being photographed. But this picture is quite obviously her; anyone in the family would instantly recognise her weird (deleted), eccentric (deleted), err, eclectic taste in socks.

Saturday 21st February 2009

We have a box of old buttons that has gradually grown over the last hundred years as it has been passed from my grandmother down to Jo. I have always loved playing with them.

Jo uses them in her therapy sessions as well. I think we usually forget its original purpose as a sewing aid!

Friday 20th February 2009

Our house is full of crystals.


We began collecting them after David died and have built up a wonderful selection. This is a simple quartz crystal and has the advantage it's right next to the bed so I didn't have to go far to photograph it!

Thursday 19th February 2009

The Snowdrops are reaching their peak.


Still not feeling on top form but I just had to go out in the garden and steal a photo.

Wednesday 18th February 2009

Spent the whole day in bed.


The view was something like this. I had a feeling when I began this blog that a photo a day might be a bit ambitious with my health but I'll press on and see how it goes...

Tuesday 17th February 2009

One doesn't see many spiders around the house at this time of year but this one popped into the kitchen today.


It is a female Amaurobius similis which lives in holes in walls, fences and window frames within which it makes a tubular retreat with bluish silk threads around the entrance.

Monday 16th February 2009

 

Stuffed onion for lunch today.

Sunday 15th February 2009

It doesn't matter what the weather is like, the poppy and cornflowers display in the corner of the conervatory always brightens up my day.

Saturday 14th February 2009

A trip to Hoylake....



....where all the street furniture has a rope theme.

Friday 13th February 2009

I live in the UK but my best friend spends this time of the year in NZ.


Thank heavens for the Internet. My brother and I e-mail each other at least once a day. Mind you, when he’s in the UK he’s 400 miles away so we still e-mail daily then!

Thursday 12th February 2009

Another day largely spent scanning in my old transparencies.


When I sorted those I wanted to scan from those I was ignoring I purposely mixed them all up. That way the fun of the process is enhanced by never knowing which slide I’m going to pick up next.

Wednesday 11th February 2009

Looking around for something to photograph in the house I came across this jug.

We bought this black and white transfer printed jug at an antiques fair in St George’s Hall some years ago. At the time it was more than we could afford but we both liked it and decided to treat ourselves. It’s age is uncertain but the style suggests 1860 or earlier. That makes it nearly as old as me!

Tuesday 10th February 2009

Rich is 21 today!

Monday 9th February 2009

Inspired by the new header on Nan’s Blog I decided to take one or two photos of my bookshelves today.


These don’t normally live together on a shelf – I’m more a sort of Dewey Decimal Classification person really. I just thought it would make a more interesting photo if I mixed the titles up a bit.

Sunday 8th February 2009

It doesn't matter what the weather does; Timmy Willie is prepared....

Saturday 7th February 2009

Maintaining the 'requirement' to post a photo of myself each month, here is February's. (With many thanks to the tripod for it's part in taking this...)


I've just been to the barber's today.

"How would you like your hair cut, sir?"
"In silence, please."

No chance!

Friday 6th February 2009

This ice pattern on one of the ponds was fantastic – it looked just like a maple leaf. The photo does not do it justice. I couldn’t quite get the angle / light right. The straight lines are also ice coming out from the edge of the pond towards the middle. A very strange formation. There are some more photos of it on my Pensby blog.

Thursday 5th February 2009

The snow was really beginning to disappear this morning.


And then it started snowing again. It's too warm to stick properly just yet but more is forecast.

For those who live half their year in snow this fascination with just a few days of it may seem tiresome but for Merseyside this is now once in a decade type stuff and therefore quite exciting.

Wednesday 4th February 2009

We've still got some snow - and the sunshine.


Much of the snow has disappeared from the roads and the pathways but the grass is holding it nicely.

Tuesday 3rd Februaty 2009

It snowed again for much of the night and into the first hours of this morning.


But it was sunny throughout the day and much of the surplus snow has gone though there's a nice inch or so left on the grass if it snows again.

Monday 2nd February 2009

At last we got the snow. The rest of the country - snowploughs, all London buses cancelled, airports closed, schools off... Us - half an inch and sunshine!


Still, at least it made it worth going out and I got lots of photos. Some will go on the Pensby blog.

Sunday 1st February 2009

A brief spell of gardening in the cold sunshine - prior to a little shower - rewarded me with finding the Green Hellebore in flower.


Helleborus viridis (Green Hellebore) is one of my favourite winter flowers. Having said that, it's one of my few winter flowers!