recently...

Oh my days, it has been a long time since I last posted here. The ease of posting on Instagram has probably contributed to this tardiness as well as a tendency to take more photographs on my phone which I then think aren't good enough to post on here. In an effort to rectify that will share more of my phone photographs rather than none at all!

January has been a month of change for us as we have begun to move into our House part of the church conversion we have been working on. I am putting together a post on our website about it to be published very soon. Starting to use this space which we have been painstakingly creating for the past 13 years is the most incredible thing. There is so much I could say about it all but what has struck me most is the light!

The kitchen has one of the few clear windows in the church and I just adore being by it, looking out watching the weather. Earlier this week I spent almost the whole day in the kitchen making marmalade. With the sun streaming through the window warming my back as I 'finely sliced' the peel, listening to the radio, I was so content! The window has enhanced my life enormously (the Hut which has been our temporary house while we made the real one, was in effect a building within a building and therefore had no outside windows).

 

 

I have however been getting out and about in all weathers recently as I have taken up running. This has been wonderful for exploring all the nearby country lanes and has probably contributed to the increase in landscape photographs being taken with my phone camera. The early morning runs are the best as you get to see this...

I have really taken to these mini adventures and challenges that running has given me, and that I'm up and out to get to see the sun rise on a frosty January morning is a real bonus.

Thank you for sticking with me! I shall endeavour not to leave it so long xx

a red hawthorn tree

A red hawthorn tree in the bottom of The Field.
The tree looks like it is covered in a thousand tiny rosebuds.
Unlike the native hawthorn, the red hawthorn has double flowers.

 

And there are plenty of the traditional white blossomed variety nearby.

the bluebell wood

 

Woodlands in May.

The fresh green leaves on the beech trees.

The carpet of bluebells with their intoxicating scent.

Dappled spring sunshine. 

Nothing beats a British woodland in May.

 

squelching through fields

 

Last weekend, Littlest and I took advantage of a free couple of hours to 'squelch and squerch' across fields, along country lanes and along the canal to a nearby village, Berriew.

 

 

The rains held off long enough to reach home. It was good to be out... exploring, stretching our legs and eyes. And what a joy to spot the first of the snowdrops on a roadside verge. 

the copper beech in january

Soft winter sunlight casting long shadows.
Bare branches with the last leaves holding on.

 

 

Joining in with 'Tree Following'

the copper beech in november

 

  

 

As I approached the copper beech tree, I was shocked to see that it was completely bare... all the leaves had gone. Surrounding trees are still holding on to most of their leaves, but not the copper beech. There was a thick carpet of curled copper leaves covering the grass under the tree. The husks of the few nuts the tree produced this year remain on the branches.

the copper beech in october

 

 

 

October is the month when this tree really comes into it's own. Standing in the warm sun gazing up at the thousands of shades of copper. Just how lovely...

foraging

 

As summer slips into autumn, it is a time of picking and preserving... and picking some more. 

My favourite wild damson tree in a hedgerow a few fields away was laden with fruit. A carrier bag full was promptly turned into damson chutney, followed by a batch of damson jam.

 

 

  

The plum tree in the allotment has had a wonderful year, with more fruit than ever before. The boys have been climbing up it to reach the sweetest fruits up in the top of the tree. We have picked and picked - eaten lots straight from the tree, given boxfulls away, made plum jam and plum chutney and even sold some in punnets on the doorstep with an honesty jar - and the tree is still laden! 

  

 In recent years I have made a small batch of elderberry syrup which is particularly good for those winter colds (a little with mixed with some hot water is very soothing).

 I do love hedgerow foraging...

the copper beech in september

 

 

The copper beech is beginning to take on darker tones as the season begins to slip into autumn. The light is hazy in the misty mornings.

The first of the leaves are falling, and the beech nuts are growing.

Joining in with Loose and Leafy's 'Tree Following'

Previous Tree Following posts here