quiet paws.

Winter is my favourite time of year. The fashion is wonderful (all those beautiful coats, jackets, boots, gloves and hats), the weather alternates between crisp, crystal clear blue-sky days and perfectly mood-filled rainy, gray-cloud days. It’s the best time of year to warm up with a glass of red wine, to relax in front of an open fire-place, or to snuggle under the covers for just a few extra minutes of comfort.

One thing that I particularly love about winter is observing the contrasts of the season in the garden. I love imagining all the hidden preparations taking place below the soil as bulbs and seeds get themselves busy with preparations for spring. I also love that during a season which most people associate with hibernation, some plants are producing some absolutely beautiful flowers to brighten the wintry world. In lieu of being able to provide each and every one of you with a fresh bunch of flowers, I thought I’d share a few images of the blooms from my (potted) garden. I hope these digital blooms will inspire and awaken your senses as much as they do mine…

The air is just a little cooler and crisper each day. Bare hands clutch more firmly to the warmth of oversized coffee cups. Light from the sun seems a little brighter and clearer, yet somehow shines a little more distantly. The house fills with the comforting fragrance of sweet cakes, pies and biscuits baking in a hot oven.

The  red and brown leaves crunch satisfyingly underfoot…

…Autumn has arrived…

This has been a strange sort of year, and as the months drip by and we pass through the time between each season I always feel a little ‘out of sorts’. I’m sure I’ve written about this kind of thing sometime before. And so with all this strangeness going on, it seems that I’ve once again been missing in action from here more than I ever intended to be. Thanks to all those who have continued to drop by and leave a comment or two…my apologies for not always getting back to you.

Writing is such a funny thing to do…and not funny in a comedic way, more funny in a why do we do this sort of thing to ourselves kind of way. You know how it is.

So much time spent in crafting the perfect arrangement of words, then wishing them all the best on their journey before we release them to the world…and then the cycle begins again.

At times it can be difficult to find the patience for this careful crafting and hard to maintain focus and motivation for long periods of time…but therein lies the challenge.

So anyway, what I am really trying to say in far too many words, it that I hope to be back for a while, but you never can tell when the winds will change again.