Peace, Love and Cookies!

This week I have been attempting to edit my NaNoWriMo novel, slowly but surely I have been reading it through a chapter at a time. This is the first time I've actually read it back and am still only about five chapters in. I have been really pleased with a couple of chapters, the words were obviously flowing then. But have heavily cut others when I must have been short of inspiration but still soldiering on to meet my daily word target!

For the rest of my weekI am going to let the photos do the talking....

This was taken from my kitchen window, as you can see the snow is still
thick on the ground. I love how it has settled on the Buddha in the background,
his face is still showing but he has a cosy snow hat and coat on. :-)

This week for the very first time in my 50 years I baked cookies!
They turned out to be really delicious, I told my Mum and she
reckons that I am a late developer! ;-)

There was Peace in the air and on my mantelpiece this week.

There was lots of Love in the air too!

And on the Winter Solstice we had our first open fire of the year,
we kept it and lots of candles lit all day long while we curled up,
warm and cosy and watched Avatar again. (We enjoyed it just
as much as the first time that we saw it in 3D at the cinema.)

Sammy kept me company from his spot on the sofa in my computer room.
I should have cleaned him up before I took his photo, he is always filthy!
That face is his 'stroke me please' face. :-)

And then in the heart of the night there was the full Moon lighting up
my night time garden with an intense silver light that illuminated
the glittering snow so that it glowed and sparkled!

It was a beautiful and magical sight!

"There are diamonds in the snow, I see them sparkling.
Tiny lights, brilliant and bewitching.
Glistening there on the cold and holy ground."

I hope you had a magical week too!

I am linking this to week 15 of I Saw Sunday why not join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. :-)

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My Purple hat, feeding birds and Snow, Snow, Snow!

Well, this week I finally retrieved my scarves, gloves and hats from the vacuum bags where they had been stored in flat packages since last winter. I had thinned out my collection of hats and scarves before I put them away and couldn't remember which I had kept, so was very glad to find my purple hat again. :-)

It had been dry and a bit icy but then we had another light sprinkling of snow.

Then a couple of days ago the snow began to fall. I took these photos from my desk
of all the little birds visiting my bird table just outside the window.

A bluetit sheltering from the snow.

A sparrow taking his turn.

A bluetit filling up on seed.

A Robin seeking seed and shelter.

And then yesterday the snow REALLY began to fall and the scene outside
my window got whiter and whiter and the snow got deeper and deeper.

So by the time I got up this morning, turned on my computer and lifted up
the blind at my window, this was the scene I was faced with.

The poor birds were hanging around and there was no food anywhere, any that had been left over from yesterday had been buried under inches of snow. Now I still wasn't fully awake but I couldn't relax and drink coffee and check emails with the poor birds out there looking for food.

So I needed a plan, Joe was still asleep (he would have been my number one plan!)

So I began to look for my wellington boots, then realised that they were in the shed, meaning that I would need wellington boots to fetch the wellington boots! I realised that the spade was there too. So I improvised. I put on my everyday boots but as I gauged that the snow would come inches over them, I decided to put plastic bags over them and up to my knees.

I gathered up the big tub of seed and something to scrape the snow from the bird table and with the seed tucked under my arm, I opened the back door. Then all the snow that had been drifting against the door promptly fell inside. Now this was not starting well.

I managed to get myself through the door and promptly fell over, down the three steps outside the back door. Luckily the snow was soft and despite being covered in snow I was okay, so managed to get myself back up onto my feet again and attempted to get to the place we kept the spade. After finding myself on my back again I realised that I really wasn't cut out for this and that the plastic bags were probably not a good idea as despite not helping with the falling / slipping... my feet ankles and calves were the only thing left on me that was dry!

I gave up on the spade and made my way around to the back of the house and the bird table. My hand were wet, icy and crimson with cold. I kicked the snow away from a patch on the ground and poured seed for the birds that like to eat from the floor, and filled the bird table with seed too. Just time to shake the snow from the cotoneaster berries that the blackbird was eating yesterday before I fell over for the third time!

I finally got indoors looking like a snowman, still with my plastic bag leggings. So having had to completely change all of my clothes and trying to warm my freezing hands, I finally got to read my emails and to write this post.

To add insult to injury, instead of sympathy from Joe when I told him about my escapades, he thought it was hysterically funny! Which in hindsight I agree it probably was. :-)

Just a shame no one could have snapped a photo of me when I came back indoors, now I agree that would have been funny!

I took these photos before I began my mini polar expedition!

I am linking this to week 14 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
You have all week to post your link - words or pictures or both!
Click here to visit - I Saw Sunday

Frost, Fog and Frozen Rosebuds.

This week has been one of the coldest I can remember and has lead to some beautiful sights. The snow finally disappeared and for a couple of days was replaced with an extreme frost that covered everything and transformed it. This was my view from my window...

On one day it was accompanied by fog which
gave everything such an ethereal magical look.

"Feathered with hoarfrost,
skeletal trees loom closer;
fog shrouded arches."
- Paul Brown

I took a walk around my garden and snapped a few photos,
this is the lantern on our shed complete with frost covered cobwebs.

The fog beginning to build in the distance.

This beautiful rosebud was frozen and covered in ice crystals
its delicate colour and shape frozen in time.
At least I saw it and was able to appreciate its beauty...
not everything has to bloom to make its mark.

We went to the nearest town to do our shopping. . .
wrapped in so many layers we could hardly walk. :-)

I noticed the decorative top of this building,
though the clock has shown the wrong time for years!
It was about 1pm.There was a decorated tree in the middle of a roundabout.

Now a couple of abstract images that caught my eye.
I loved the way this grating around the bottom of
the tree looked covered in deep frost.

And I adore this, bird and human footprints and railings. :-)

"Winter solitude -
in a world of one colour
the sound of the wind."
- Basho

After all that white, it was wonderful to see this shop
window lit up with this glowing chandelier!

Well, that was a few snapshots of my week

What about yours? What did you see this week?
Please consider linking a post from your blog into I Saw Sunday (below)
The three regulars would appreciate your company. :-)

"Expect nothing,
appreciate everything."
- unknown

This is for week 13 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
You have all week to post your link - words or pictures or both!
Click here to visit - I Saw Sunday