Sky and penguin and reindeer

Posted on December 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Apedale, Blow up decorations, Christmas train, Fun, Mining museum, Penguin, Presents, Reindeer, Speedboat, Toys, WarmthLeave a comment

This would be moody were it not for the dim outlines of blow up Christmas animals at the bottom of the image. I get the reindeer, but I’m not sure why they had a 🐧 penguin.

Santa was in the warmth of the Apedale mining museum. He seemed to have had a job lot of toy speedboats to hand out. The boys we saw had all got them as presents, I’m not sure whether little girls got the same, as we didn’t see any with presents. I suppose it makes it easier than having to tailor the toys to the child.

The sky was quite moody but it didn’t rain until we were on the way home.

I think everyone had a great time.

Remembering spring

Posted on November 15, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cold, Fun, Life, Pantomime, Spring, Theatre, Warmth, Weather, WinterLeave a comment

DSC_1852_optimized (3)

As we sink slowly into Northern Winter, I thought I would post a picture of the spring earlier this year. The buds were starting to burst, the flowers were opening on rhododendrons. The sky was a warm blue, not the cold, grey, scudding clouds of today.

Warmer evenings, longer days… I can’t wait! I don’t want to make time rush by, but please, don’t let it be a long, cold, harsh winter. We already have flooding in South Yorkshire and parts of the South Midlands where towns like Fishlake have been inundated.

Our local pantomime is on in February, just when winter is starting to get really annoying. We are doing Aladdin this time. I’ve got a small part in it. Hopefully I won’t be falling over while I try to dance!

Waiting for Spring.

Posted on October 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Autumn, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Life, Spring, Sun, WarmthLeave a comment

IMG_20191016_182752_optimized

It’s Autumn and I’m already waiting for Spring! I need to work on the garden, cut shrubs back, plant tulip bulbs, plant snowdrops, then… Wait, wait, wait… Through the cold and rain, through the shirt dates and long nights.

I want to see the baby birds, the squirrel and its kits, the tadpoles in the pond (if we have frogs we must have tadpoles). I look forward to warmer, not too hot, days. Life returns.

In the winter here it usually does not get too cold. But it can be grey, wet and windy.

The clocks go back at the end of October, then the sun will go down an hour earlier, I hate sitting in the dark in the winter, trying to keep warm. Looking forward to the winter solstice when the sun starts coming back a little more every day.

☓

Sitting in a park

Posted on September 10, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Life, Park, Plants, Relaxed, Summer, Warmth1 Comment

‘what is life, if full of care, we have no time to stop and stare’

W. H. Davies

Today has been lovely, we went out to see an exhibition and decided to stop and have an ice cream in the park. The sun was shining and it was just nicely warm, there was a sensory garden with large leaved plants and seed heads, the sky was dotted with fair weather clouds and the Rowan trees were full of berries. Dogs were barking off in the distance. The world was just right. I closed my eyes and suddenly I felt like I had been transported to my childhood. It was the 1960’s again before I knew about politics and anger, before I has heard of wars and revenge. I relaxed! Like a sunny Sunday afternoon in the park I played in as a child. No thought of what I have to do next. No time constraints. No I’ve got to be somewhere now. Wonderful.

Solenoid

Posted on September 9, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Central heating, Fixed, Repair, Solenoid, Warmth, WaterLeave a comment

My central heating boiler went on the blink, which is a problem because we had no hot water. Luckily we have a contract with a company so I was able to call them out. I thought it was the timer because the heating was not kicking in when the timer moved round to ‘on’. But no, the nice man from the company could hear the pump kicking in but the flame was not lighting. So he had a look and removed this, it’s a solenoid. Basically the circuit has to close to light the boiler so that the heating comes on its apparently worked by electromagnetism. I’m really pleased he fixed it. My boiler is twenty five and still works well. I’m worried that it is going to become obsolete. Hopefully they will be able to get parts for a few more years yet…..

Sunlight

Posted on June 27, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Brightness, Environment, Heat, Joy, Light, Poem, Poetry, Sunlight, WarmthLeave a comment

6am, sunlight creeps in

and bathes the dusty books

with a golden glow

chases away the cobwebs

sings loudly by the door

breaks vases with a sparkle

finds dust motes in the air.

Sunlight cleans and bleaches

exposes over and over

till red book covers are faded

now salmon pink

Sunlight tinged with heat

warms your head

tickles your feet

raises a smile

makes you feel alive

a photosynthetic dash

of vitamin D

Sunlight is Life.

Looking out

Posted on February 26, 2019 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Birds, Cat, Cats, Garden, Life, Temperature, Warmth, WeatherLeave a comment

20190211_150910

When a cat wants to look out of the window they don’t care what’s in the way. A few days ago I found one of my cats with their back half on the box of bird food and their front paws on the window ledge. The bird activity at the moment is quite busy because of the warm weather we have been having. It was 18 degrees Celsius yesterday in this area and has been 19 degrees in the Midlands today. The highest temperature in the country today was 20 degrees the hottest since records began for a February day. The normal temperature is about 5 to 8 degrees at this time of year. Last year when the beast from the east was here we were getting lows of minus 5 degrees.

Part of the reason for all this is the fact that Britain is in a temperate area. We have winds that arrive from all directions, and depending on the direction we get lots of varied weather. At the moment we have had a high pressure area situated over us so we are in a quite stable situation. There is a big dip in the jet stream so warm air is being pulled up from the south. We are actually in warmer air than in Greece at the moment. The pressure is due to reduce and we are expecting cooler air and some rain later in the week.

Anyway I was talking about birds but got distracted. My husband bought a woven birds nest yesterday that wrens can nest in. We are expecting blue tits to nest in the garden this year and we also get blackbirds that nest in the hedge and the ivy on the house. The only problem is this warmth is bringing insects out but their food plants are not flowering yet. We need it to be cooler for at least another month .

The cats enjoy watching the birds, chattering at pigeons and sparrows. I’m glad we don’t let them out in the garden. But we have many cats that visit so we try and keep the vegitation cut enough but leave some cover for birds to hide in.

Anyway I’m feeling pretty bad at the moment with tonsillitis so I think I will just leave this ramble here.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Warmth