STICKS AND STONES

The poetry group to which I belong has asked for something more cheerful - a tough call at the present.

JANUARY LOCK DOWN

Mornings can be tricky, 

lying in bed, lingering on the world,

wanting to be somewhere else,

someone else, some other time,

body asleep, brain awake,

warm, not wishing to move.

But the day insists,

bathroom beckons,

brush teeth, splash face,

use towel to scratch back,

that unreachable place,

shave, dress.

Creatures of habit

inhabit predictable worlds - 

similar clothes, same breakfast,

cup of tea, news on iPad.

Clatter, paper arrives,

same news, same puzzles -

all different but the same.

What to do?

Supermarket? Go for a walk -

but it rains again

and again. Read,

have another cup of tea, 

coffee, biscuit?

Really need to have hair cut.

Thoughts of pony tails,

mullets, D.A. - God forbid!

Have a chipped tooth.

AM BORED!

Light the fire,

turn on the TV.

Nothing to watch,

turn on the radio,

4 extra -

Journey Into Space!

Lemmy. Really!

Now have had the jab

might not even catch the virus.

The snow has gone for now - so it is raining! I must pick up the sticks fallen in the wood.

Last of the current snowy pics, I especially like the contrast between colourful foliage and the snow.

Snowdrops doing well - all the dividing and replanting is worthwhile. R has this dream of a carpet of snowdrops from the house to the far wall along the upper bankings and in the fringes of the wood - bit of a way to go yet.

On one of the windowsills there is an assorted stone collection - from all over the place (including New Zealand) and they look colourful in the sun. There are others scattered through the garden, many now under soil and they spring a surprise when we dig them up. One large white chunk of quartz I remember carrying down in a back pack from Goats Water in the Coniston Fells.

In the wood the main path up is mainly moss now - this is due to mowing and our wet weather. The crossing places, many just an old plank, are submerged with the water flow and from the house you can hear the roar of water in the beck over the wall. This does not deter the snowdrops pushing up through the leaf litter.

S the gardener has been and moved the Euonymus elata to the left of the lower banking, something R has wanted done for a long time as it obstructs her view of the pond. He has also pruned one of the hydrangeas and dug over the big compost heap. I can always find something for him to do.

The amaryllis K and S gave us for Christmas seems to grow and inch a day. Soon we will have its glorious flowers.

House plants are on minimum watering and really just keeping them alive until they stir in the spring.

Some are getting too big and pot bound so I will have to divided them.

Anyone want 20 or 30 small aloe plants - they breed like rabbits.

Been out shifting manure and compost then found we have had a visitor turning the compost heap - well digging in it. (Rabbit). Since S the gardener dug it over it has already improved though too many sticks in there.

I moved 5 wheelbarrow loads to this small bed near the house - should be rich enough to grow something this year. I may move some perennials into it when I tidy the cutting bed. R has been pruning the hydrangeas up by the wood that Pam gave us.

Then she began to clear away the litter from around the snowdrops. Her work over the years is now paying off.

The division helps but they are also self sowing. 

One thing I noticed was the large amount of twig fall - something to do - pick up the sticks, something R does not like doing (nor does my back).