Midwinter
One of my favourite Christmas carols has always been “In the bleak midwinter”, probably because the first verse is all about a snowy landscape, but I don’t think that growing up, I ever really thought about when “midwinter” actually was.
It’s now, isn’t it?** Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day, and now we’re heading back to lighter nights – it seems incredible that we’ve reached that point in the year. Christmas Eve tomorrow, Christmas Day the day after … I’m pretty much ready for Christmas now (which has got to be a first, usually I’m racing Father Christmas on Christmas Eve to see which of us will manage to get the presents under the tree first! 🙂 ) and before the Christmas celebrations start, I’m going to try to spend the next hours slowing down, taking a deep breath and to appreciate the opportunity to stop rushing around for a while!
The photos in today’s post were all taken this month and have sat on my camera roll whilst other things took priority. It’s been lovely to go through them to write the post – especially as yet again, the wind is howling round the house and the rain is battering on the windows. “Snow had fallen, snow on snow,” goes a line in the carol but certainly not here – we’re in for a warm (and probably windy) Christmas according to the weather forecasts. It’s mostly frost in these photos, but I’ve enjoyed seeing the little bit of snow that we had at the beginning of the month again!
Someone has decorated a tree in Bewsey Meadows where the dog and I walk sometimes, and I love it. Those red baubles have brought a smile to my face every time I’ve walked past them.
A delivery driver made the hearts on our driveway – quite unintentionally but my husband spotted them and took a photo. The snow didn’t last long, but even a single snowflake makes my heart happy! I’ve given my cousin in Canada the task of sending me photos whenever they have snow – and Lucy in Skipton as they get more snow than us – anyone, really who gets more snow that us as I have to get my snow fix from somewhere! 🙂 I was talking to my uncle in Canada the other day and he said they don’t have much snow on the ground – “but there’s still plenty of winter to go”. He’s right. We are only midwinter and there’s plenty of weather to come!
The last photo is of Fiddlers Ferry power station. It used to have eight cooling towers but four of them (they would have been on the right) were demolished on 3 December. The power station is 7.3 miles away from Winwick, according to Google maps, but we heard the sound of the towers falling and our house shook as if there had been an earthquake. The dog goes for his hydrotherapy sessions at the kennels right next to the power station – it must have been loud there!
Thank you very much for your lovely comments and emails when I had a cold last week, and I’m sorry that some of you weren’t feeling great either. It took a few days before I felt on top form again, but thankfully it’s all passed and I hope you’re on the mend now too!
I’ll be posting again tomorrow for Christmas Eve, but I’d like to take the opportunity now to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, and if you don’t celebrate, then I wish you a joyful weekend! 🎄
** I’ve got my dates wrong – Midwinter is 3 February 2023, part way between the Winter and the Spring Solstices. Thanks, Lucy!
Thankyou for those stunning photos, lifted my spirits
And a happy Christmas to you and yours. Thank you for all the smiles and laughter you have given me over the last year.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year too. And thank you for your weekly posts, the high light of Saturdays x
Thanks Christine, so pleased you are feeling better.
Hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy 2024.
X
Wishing you a Merry Christmas. I enjoy reading your posts all year. No snow for us here in Indiana. We expect rain & will only be dreaming of a white Christmas 🎄
Thankyou Christine. All the very best to you and your family. I love Xmas. spending time with my family. xx
Merry Christmas 🎄🎁 Thank you for the time you make to write your blog.
happy Christmas to you and yours.Glad you are on mend
Merry Christmas!!!🌲🎅
I always enjoy reading your (almost) weekly post – you have a wonderful way of cheering me up and encouraging me to try new things with knitting. If not then I just admire what you and others accomplish.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Best wishes in this coming New Year 2024
it wasn’t until my husband and I were in Oxford during a snowstorm that I truly understood the words to that carol. I too love the bleak mid-winter however enjoy it much better from pictures! Merry Christmas to you and your family, love from Central Florida
The photos have made my day. I too love proper winter and pray for wintery weather – we are obviously in for another grey and damp Christmas here in Surrey – but maybe it will get colder again afterwards.
Wishing you and your family the happiest of Christmasses and another lovely year of sharing your life and projects with us in 2024.
This is the time to read Milly Johnson’s “I wish it could be Christmas every day”.xx
Beautiful pictures Thanks for sharing. Wishing you and your family all the blessings of a Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you & your family Christine, I so enjoy your newsy chats every week, it feels like your a lovely friend popping in for a chat & a coffee.
Love the photos xx
I love the photos, beautiful snippets of winter. I wish I was a winter person but I am not, I love the warmth and the flowers and beaches of summer. I am happiest when it is 80 degrees farienheight out. Sadly I live in New England with lots of ice and snow days.
season’s greetings Christine, love your photos, always feel ‘better’ when daylight lengthens again, we’ve had some lovely sunsets lately but alot of gusty wind too, the fields are starting to dry up at last. Hope you get to relax a little,
Best wishes
Liz
Merry Christmas to you and your family,..hope you have an enjoyable time! Thank you for a year of photos and blog posts…love reading them!
❤️
Have a lovely Christmas 🎄! Your photos and note were a delightful read this morning. We too will be having a warm Christmas this year (Eastern Shore of Virginia, USA) and we are so hoping for at least one good snow ⛄️
Thanks for your blogs and photos. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
By the by when I clicked on your email it keeps asking about the settings only this time it was in a foreign language. Why does it keep asking when I’ve already set up what I want or don’t want?
I don’t know – it does that to me too. I’ll ask them when the support team is back after Christmas! I have no idea why it’s asking you questions in a foreign language either – a Christmas mystery! 🙂 xx
Merry Christmas to you all.
The photos are beautiful! Merry Christmas to you and all your readers. ✝️🎄🙏
It looks as though you get the same hard frosts we do! They generally mean a beautiful morning, though.
Merry Christmas to you and your family! Let us all hope for a far more peaceful 2024.
Merry Christmas to you and I hope you have a lovely time with the family. Thank you for the blog and the lovely photos throughout the year.
Thank you Christine for the emails and photos throughout the year they have been great. Happy Christmas to you all and a peaceful new year
Christine have a wonderful Christmas and new year – you deserve it !
I always enjoy your posts and photos-you really have an amazing eye for photography! I wish you and your family the most wonderful holidays! ❤️
Thanks Christine, beautiful photos! Christmas greetings from Sydney, Australia. Lovely & warm but we are expecting a wet Christmas Day!
Thank you Christine, love looking at your photos and hearin.g snippets of your adventures with the dog and wayward kitties. plus big daughter not so small daughter and hubby too. Have a magical Christmas with you and yours x
Merry Christmas
Great photographs – have a lovely Christmas. xx
Beautiful photos and I especially love the accidental hearts! 💕 Happy Christmas 🎄
Merry Christmas Christine! Glad you’re feeling better. My eye was twitching for a week on and off and is now sore and weepy. Hoping it’ll be fine tomorrow but it’s doubtful!
When you see demolitions on the news, you expect it to be loud but don’t think of the vibrations spreading out. I wonder if they do…
fabulous photos as always, love looking at them. Merry Christmas to you and your family x
Merry Christmas to you and yours, and thank you for your lovely chats each week. Pleased you’re feeling better. Take care.
I can almost feel the chill emanating from your photos through my screen – quite the welcome relief here in mid-summer Australia! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and new years.