A day off and a day out . . .

Today was my day off and as  I hadn't been up to London for ages I decided I'd have a day out and go to Mass at Westminster Cathedral and a mooch around the Catholic bookshops nearby.

In the cathedral I bumped into one of the Friars of the Renewal that I know from his visits to the parish.  Then after the beautiful Mass when I was browsing in the bookshops I bumped into one of the priests from a neighbouring parish at home.  The Catholic world is a small one!

As well as attending Mass, I love to spend some time with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.  It's amazing how close to the Lord one feels and how easily one forgets that the busy, bustling world is carrying on as usual just yards away.  Fantastic!

As I was on the train home, the sun suddenly burst through the clouds and I arrived home to see the garden bathed in sunshine.  I wanted to post a photo on Twitter of our camellia which has burst into bloom recently but for some reason Twitter wasn't cooperating so I thought I'd post a few snaps here . . .

One good thing about this long cold spell and the delay of the onset of Spring is that all the spring bulbs have lasted for ages.  These little tête-à-tête daffodils have been in bloom for weeks.

In deepest Winter - signs of Spring . . .

We're hearing a lot at the moment about how mild this Winter has been so far (careful, we've a way to go yet . . . ) and I can certainly say that according to our garden, Spring is already trying to put in an appearance.

I took these few shots on a lovely sunny day - Bank Holiday Monday (2nd January). Our camellia is a mass of buds, many ready to burst as the one above which has already opened.

It looks as if these daffs by the front door will be open well in time for St David's Day . . .

I know Browning is not to everybody's taste and can be a bit sentimental but when I come home after a hard day and I see these flowers shooting ahead, it really makes me think, 'God's in His heaven - All's right with the world!'

The year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hillside's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His heaven -

All's right with the world!

~Robert Browning

Hooray for British Summer Time . . . !

Hooray, we get an extra hour's daylight at the end of the day! I expect I'm unusual in this, but I didn't mind losing an hour's sleep last night when the clocks changed as I seemed to have a supercharged battery today.

I often get up an hour later on Sundays anyway but tend to wake up at my usual working-day time so getting up was not a problem. Seeing the sunshine outside, I was eager to get up and start the day.

After Mass I had a nice, long gap before Rosary and Benediction in the afternoon, with no lunch to worry about as the Pater Familias disappeared after Mass to do something energetic with a racquet and a shuttlecock.

My body kept telling me it was an hour earlier than it actually was, if you see what I mean, so I managed to make a start on a couple of jobs that I haven't been able to summon the energy to tackle for some time.

First of all, the shed. Now this is going to be a major project, I feel, but I made a good start and managed to fill a couple of bin bags with rubbish and had a big pile of items that needed to be relocated to the garage or the loft.

Next, after I got back from Rosary and Benediction, the white plastic garden table which had accumulated an interesting greyish green patina over the winter. Now it's almost luminous!

Finally, an hour's ironing.

I think I deserve a pat on the back, or at least a little glass of something to help me relax . . .

By the way, isn't our camellia looking lovely in her Spring coat? I took this photo today.

Roll on Spring!

I was fed up with the dreary picture of snow and ice that was behind the header of this blog. It was making me feel grey too whenever I looked at it so I thought I'd try and inject a bit of optimism with a picture of some of the beautiful blossom that I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing before too very long.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to be back blogging regularly but I thought I'd just drop by and update the pictures and header now that things are getting back to normal again after the heady but hectic days of Christmas.

Today is the first day of Ordinary Time so things should be quieter for a while. The decorations are packed away in their boxes and returned to the loft; front gardens hereabouts are adorned with sad-looking Christmas trees and the odd string of lights that still have to be taken down.

Just as the Church is entering the 'green season' again, so are our gardens.

In the very brief moments of sunshine we've had in the last few days, it's been lovely to see the crocuses pushing their way through the soil now that the snow has finally gone and we have a lovely bunch of very early daffodils by our front door that are already coming along nicely. Lots to look forward to. As I said in the title of this post . . .

Roll on Spring!

Vernal Equinox - Spring bulbs and weeds!

Yay, it's the Vernal Equinox at last! Actually to be precise it occurred yesterday at 17.32 GMT.

You're never too old to learn, are you? I always think of the Equinoxes occurring on the 21st of the month but I've just discovered today that the date varies from year to year. It's all to do with Leap Years and that the Earth takes approximately 365.25 days to go around the Sun. We have to allow for that extra 0.25 day somehow.

In case you couldn't guess, science was never my strong suit (I've yet to discover what is!) so I'm expecting all those science teachers out there to correct me on this one.

All that matters to me is that the days and nights are roughly the same length at the Equinoxes and the Vernal Equinox is the beginning of Spring, and more importantly, the end of Winter - hooray!

When I heard the weather forecast last night and the promise of a lovely day, I decided that I would have a good few hours in between Mass and Rosary and Benediction to get out in the garden and do some much-needed tidying up.

I should have learned, it's never a good idea to make plans - something always seems to get in the way of their being realised. I woke up this morning with a rotten head-cold and spent that time dosing myself up with hot lemon etc. and resting. Still I did manage to take a few photos. A lot more leaves and weeds in evidence than there might have been if all had gone to plan.

I thought I might get away with sneaking this tiny little gnome into the pot on our front doorstep - none of the family have commented in the 5 years of so since he took up residence!

You may remember a few weeks ago, when we had a lovely mild day which actually coincided with my day off, I mentioned that I'd visited the local garden centre. These pansies are only now beginning to show signs of life after our long winter.

Crocuses, a bit late but much in evidence.

Again, quite a bit later than normal, the first few opening buds on the camellia. The shrub is covered with loads of big juicy buds so promise of a great display to come.

By the way, I did get to Mass, and Rosary and Benediction was beautiful - O Salutaris, Tantum Ergo and Adoremus. People still remember the Latin and join in with gusto.

Roll on Spring!

I was getting fed up with the picture of the snow at the top of my blog. It was making me feel depressed every time I looked at it and I was sitting shivering at my keyboard!

The new picture was taken at Alderley Edge in Cheshire a couple of years ago, at around this time of year - probably about 3 weeks later in the year. Actually yesterday was a lovely sunny day here and I was hoping to take a few photos for the blog but didn't manage to fit it in after all.

Looking around the garden now that the snow has gone, there are signs of life - lots of bulbs appearing. I love this time of year when we begin to see the new growth after a long, grey winter.

Among the earliest bulbs to flower in our garden are a little clump of daffodils right by the front door. It really cheers you up when you put your key in the door. They are always out well before St David's Day. Here's a photo taken in February last year.

That was Christmas . . .

Proof, if proof were needed, that the Christmas Season is definitely over. A forlorn-looking Christmas tree at the kerbside along with other detritus of the season (we were unlucky in that our usual day for the emptying of wheelie bins coincided with the onset of the snowy weather).

I was going to post a photo of 'the gap left by our crib' which has also just been dismantled ready to go back in the loft until next year but decided that was a bit too 'obtuse' as a visible representation of the end of the Christmas season!

Garden in Autumn . . .

I didn't have time today to go far to enjoy the beautiful Autumn day but I did manage to step outside the back door . . .

When I got back from work at lunchtime, the PF was busy collecting leaves in the front garden, but luckily hadn't touched the back so it was still a beautiful carpet of leaves (well, rug really, it's only a small garden.)

If there's one plant in our garden that really deserves its place it's the fuchsia. This plant has been flowering all summer and is still going strong. Luckily it seems to thrive on neglect too!

My final comment on the garden today - At the same time as the trees are becoming bare and bedding plants are really looking sad if, like me, you haven't yet got around to replacing them them with bulbs or winter bedding, isn't it fantastic to see signs already of new growth in other areas? Just look at the buds on this camellia - even allowing for losing some through frost, I'm looking forward to a good show in very early Spring.

How can you not see God's hand in all this?

June is bustin' out all over . . .

'Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June'

(Al Bernstein, American actor)

For a change we seem to be entering June with appropriate weather - long may it last. Although not officially Summer yet, once we get into June, it usually feels as if it's here already.

June to me is;

The Epsom Derby (just down the road for us),

roses, lovely roses,

Wimbledon - and naturally strawberries and cream,

a glass or two of Pimms at the least excuse,

cricket,

walks in the countryside finishing with a cream tea whenever possible,

queues in front of ice-cream vans,

bees buzzing around lavender,

Trooping the Colour,

long hours of daylight,

'These are a few of my favourite (June) things.'

How about you?

Look what I saw in our garden today!

Shhhh..... don't say it out loud, but I saw something very exciting in our garden today. Now that the last traces of snow have finally disappeared (apart from a stubborn little patch by the side of the drive!) I noticed not one, but several bright yellow crocuses opening their petals to the watery sunshine today. HOORAY!! I love Spring and these little flowers are a sign that it is not that far away.

Snow in Autumn

What a surprise to wake up to snow on the ground this morning! It was very cold though when we walked back from the Grumpy Mole last night after a delicious celebratory dinner. The garden looked so pretty I just had to get out there with my camera and take a few photos.

These polyanthus are doing a grand job despite the snow.

And just look at this little cyclamen - the word indefatigable comes to mind!

And yet, despite the wintry covering, our large beech tree still looks magnificent with lots of beautiful Autumn leaves left.

Autumn - no words necessary ... !

Shame about the wheelie bins but at least they're the right colours!

'Indian Summer'

I think you could say that we've been experiencing a little bit of an 'Indian Summer' lately. Now although I know in general terms what people mean when they talk about an 'Indian Summer' I've never been quite sure whether they mean an 'Indian Summer' or an 'Indian Summer', if you see what I mean!

Well, what do you do when you want to find something out? As any 5 year old will tell you, 'you google it'! So that is what I did.

For any other 'sad' people like myself who are interested: First of all it refers to a period of warm weather lasting a few days and occurring at least a week after the vernal equinox (see my earlier post on the last day of summer, folks!)

Secondly it doesn't in fact refer to the weather of the sub continent pictured on the right above but to the North American Indians (sorry, Native Americans) and it was actually there that the saying originated in the late 18th century - so there!!

All right children, you may put away your books and go out to play now!!