Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons

Tags

autumn, photos, phoyography, plants, seasons, spring, summer, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons, winter

As someone who is living in Ireland you quickly learn that while Seasons are something that happen through out the year they can also happen within a single day. The sun can be shining in the morning, a sense of Spring lingers in the air at noon you suddenly get hail storms and biting winds and you can’t help but feel like Autumn. Then maybe the sun breaks through and you realise you are wearing way too much clothes and an ice-cream is all you really want suggesting that maybe it’s summer after all. But then the evening arrives and the temperatures plummet and frost paints pictures with ice on your windows  and you know it’s really still Winter. Sometimes the only way to truly know what season it is, is to look at the trees and plants and see what they are doing!

this trees have decided it’s Spring

 

bags of wood

Tags

bags of wood, christmas, fire, fire place, home, knitting, open fire, photography, photos, turf, winter, wood

It’s that time of year again when the evenings grow cold and there no better place than sitting in front of the fire in a big cosy armchair. The only problem with that is that to have a nice fire you need wood , coal and/or turf.

Living so close to the city center may have many advantages, but finding reasonably priced fuel for the fire isn’t one of them. So when I arrived back on my bike this afternoon I was equally surprised and delighted to see a big truck unloading a huge bag of wood outside my neighbours door. Not one to miss an opportunity I asked the lovely gentleman to unload a few smaller bags into my tiny back yard – the big one was just too much for me to store – and now I’ll have wood for a good week or so.

With quite a lot of writing still left to do today I have to admit that I am now looking forward to my evening spent beside the open fire, knitting socks and enjoying the wintry smell of burning turf – and who knows I may treat myself to a glass of wine!

stacked outside

waiting by the fire place, the best combination for any open fire: wood and turf

 

 

sunshine and chills

Tags

chilly air, cold, winter, wrap up warm

Winter is back in Dublin, but it has brought the sun. So while the temperatures have dropped, a definite chill is in the air, the sun is sparkling off the icy roofs.

I love this kind of weather, that certain chilly nip that pinches your cheeks and makes your eyes sparkle. I love how the cold awakens your skin and the wind tossels your hair, and you feel warm all wrapped upside a wooly jacket, coat, or (like in my case) a bright red poncho.

The only problem I have is that it makes getting up in the mornings that little bit harder. When you are all curled up and cosy under your blanket and you know once you trow it off you’ll be greeted with a freezing blast of air. As soon as you enter the crisp cold morning you’ll have to move fast, get dressed quickly to get warm. Especially my toes seem to suffer a little, but as soon as I pull on my socks and move around the brisk awakening is quickly forgotten – until the next morning when the tip of your nose alerts you to another chilly day.

 

dark mornings

Tags

morings, quotes, sleep, thoughts, William Arthur Ward, winter

Opening your eyes in the morning and only seeing darkness doesn’t make pushing away the covers and clambering out bed any easier. But get up we must, even into darkness.

I have been trying to get into a new rhythm, I naturally lean towards late nights so getting up early isn’t always an enjoyable event And since I don’t do a 9-5 job my schedule is a little bit fleeting, time-slots scattered around my calendar like footprints in the snow.

But with 2015 nearly two weeks old I decided I wanted to try and go to bed  a little bit earlier and greet the day a tad sooner too. I thought that ,maybe, be creating a more regular timeline I might be able to get more done. And I have to say I have been enjoying the extra time I have in the morning.

An extra cup of tea and an unhurried approach to the new day ahead does seem to change how I step out into the world and close the door behind me. But I do have to admit it hasn’t quite steeped in to my subconscious and the dark mornings that greet me aren’t making it easier.

This morning I did linger a little longer under the covers, the cold night still clinging on to the world not really luring me up and out. But since the nights are slowly getting shorter and daylight is creeping in earlier I hope, in time, that too shall change.

And I have to admit there is a certain magic to being awake when the rest of the world is still hidden in darkness.

Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long you miss them.

Author William Arthur Ward

snowy start

Tags

ideas, miscellaneous, quotes, random, vladimir nabokov, weather, winter, writer vladimir nabokov

Like the most of Europe Ireland has been dipped into quite an extensive cold spell. However unlike lots of other places Dublin hasn’t really had any snow, sadly. Of course there has been a few flakes every now and then and even a few mornings coated in a thin layer of white, but overall snow has stayed away.

As a snow-lover I have watched enviously as Northern Ireland has had snow alerts, Germany has been covered in layers and layers of fluffy white. But this morning I awoke to a  grey clouded sky filled with snowy promise. And my heart sang as I watched a few flakes drift down and land, then  a few more, yet before they could cover up the grey of the early morning, the snow-flakes turned into hail and then a sleety rain.

And as I watched the empty promise of a wintery white day melt and disappear I realised how like snow ideas are. Those hints of thoughts, that flutter of a concept, a flicker of something tickling the mind, wanting to come out and play. But like snow if the temperature isn’t right, or the ground not cold enough for it to settle, ideas melt and disappear before they turn into something real and beautiful. However like a tiny flake, an idea can grow, combine with others, turn from a dusting to a coat and sometimes even become a force of nature like an avalanche.

So my aim for today is to prepare some ground for ideas to fall, give them a chance to grow and not just turn into a cold puddle of slushy, grey water. Or with the words of the brilliant writer Vladimir Nabokov:

Genius is an African who dreams up snow

of fridges and christmas trees

Tags

Advent, advents kranz, christmas, christmas tree, first christmas gift, fridge, german christmas stollen, holidays, miscellaneous, random, seasonal, snow, winter

I love Christmas, it’s my favourite time of year. And although I am dieing to listen to Christmas carols, cut into my German Christmas Stollen and get the mulled wine bubbling I always wait till the 1st of December.

But because my christmassy anticipation is too much to bear I decided to order my Christmas tree yesterday, making my heart do some “drummer boy” impersonation. Of course I will now have to wait till the week before the big day to put it up and decorate it with all my favourite decorations, I just hope I don’t combust is a blaze of holly, ivy and mistletoe.

However it’s nearly time to light the first candle on my “Advents Kranz” (well this year I don’t have a wreath but a pretty row of candles to light the way up to Christmas) which will fill the need for piney goodness for a few weeks.

And knowing tomorrow I’ll be putting up decorations around the house while listening to crooners corning Christmas carols makes me all giddy with excitement. I even get to open up the first door on my Marzipan Advents-kalandar, a daily treat to count down the days.

And somehow I even feel as if I just got my first Christmas gift, a new fridge was delivered and installed yesterday night, a wish granted and a clean new home for cookie dough waiting to be baked.

So tomorrow I will spend the day at home, decorating, baking, singing and dancing my very own “jingle bells rock”. I can’t wait and all I need now for a perfect Christmas is snow and a kiss under some mistletoe. And neither are looking great at the moment, even Paddy Power has pushed the odds for a white Christmas up to 4/1 and I really don’t want to know the prediction for meeting a man is. However with the temperatures dropping I live in hope, for snow at the very least.

I used fresh green and a little bit of sparkle to decorate my “Advents Tray”

partially porridge

Tags

comfort food, food, good food, health, magical possibilities, porridge, seasonal joy, winter

One thing I love about this time of year is the cold, the way little puffs of “smoke” float out of your mouth and mingle with with the wintery air. Wearing legwarmers and warm cuddly clothes, holding hot tea in your freezing hands, the crackling fire and mulled wine add to my favourite season.

But I have to admit that a big part of my seasonal joy comes from eating porridge in the morning. I know many people have issues with the hot, mushy, oaty breakfast but I wouldn’t want to miss it as it is more than just some good healthy nourishment, it is comfort food … a big hot hug from within!

We all know that food does more than give us vitamins, protein and minerals, it nourishes us emotionally too. And recently when the hurricane hit the east coast of the USA the United States Coast Guard acknowledged this by advising people to stock up on comfort/stress foods. Due to the lack of electricity they did only list “cookies, hard candy, sweetened cereals, lollipops and even instant coffee, and tea bag” but a recent poll showed that the list could have included apple pie, baked beans, beef stew, chicken soup, fried chicken, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, pot roast, pudding, pumpkin pie, tomato soup, and tuna casserole.

These are all food that tend to remind us of our childhood, reawaken memories of happy times and moments spent in joy. To me porridge reminds me of those cold wintery mornings as a little girl, longing for Christmas and living in a world filled with magical possibilities.

So my love of this time of year is partially down to porridge, the hot, slightly sweeten kind (I use raisins) mind you as there are few things worse than cold stodgy porridge.

tis the season

Tags

christmas, christmas lighting, christmas markets, decorations, halloween, home, jingle bells, miscellaneous, photography, random, red noses, time, winter

Walking home the other night I saw something I really wasn’t expecting. A team of burly looking men were busy putting up the Dublin Christmas lighting.  And when I get home and settled down to watch the news I was surprised by a Christmas themed advert.

Now I am a big Christmas lover, it is my favourite time of the year! I love when the air is crispy cold and you can smell snow or ice, I enjoy decorating my home, putting up my stocking and going to Christmas markets. I adore sitting down in front of the fire and writing Christmas cards, sipping mulled wine and listening to cheesy Christmas music. And yes I do admit that I already have several Christmas presents bought and ready for wrapping

But even I, with my Christmas infatuation, thinks it’s a bit early for baubles, ho-ho-hos and jingle bells and the only red noses on the streets should be indicators of colds not Rudolph look-a-likes. After all we still have Halloween around the corner.

So while it “tis the season to be jolly”, because it always is a good thing to be, I think we should all keep our Christmas decorations under lock and key and wait till the first of Advent to enjoy embellish our homes. So while my anticipation rises and I can’t wait for snowflakes and spices to fill the air and my fingers itch to unwrap my lovely festive ornaments I am happy to sit back and enjoy the time I am in right now.

a snap shot of last years Christmas tree, and yes it’s filled with shoes