BELATED JANUARY BITS AND PIECES

I sincerely apologise for the amount of material in this post. I've already edited out a lot of other stuff, even at this stage. So, here are January's bits and pieces. Prepare for snow.....

Christmas card?

Everyone loves snow:

This is a section of a cow's spine in Jack's mouth; lovely.

First ever picture of a fox on the moor here....it was a long way off:

Our very own glacier:

Snow bath:

Long shadows:

The snow in the garden lasted for weeks and if it's not raining, the washing goes out:

A couple of phone pics:

Tertia:

That lovely Dun pony:

Another bone being gnawed:

Hawthorn berries with all sorts of different lichen:

More frost flowers:

A frosty morning opposite OB's school

Frost trees:

Dawn skies:

I have nowhere to work where there's any light, so resort to drawing standing up in the kitchen...please note the trusty rubbing shield on the drawing board! Phone picture, hence appalling quality. OB's origami butterflies are hiding a crack in the glass; functional AND beautiful.  

Half term is dragging a bit. Only a term and a half left until OB leaves primary school for Okehampton College. Terrifying on so many levels. He's really trying to be more independent but finds it SO difficult. He'll be eleven in a few weeks and wants a guitar. He's teaching himself how to play a half size one that he was given years ago in the hope of musical interest, of which there was none bar the odd tuneless strum. I had it tuned to thirds to make it sound better but he's really getting the hang of it now and uses some kind of tuning app on his i-pod and is writing music. Way beyond me as usual. Another Aspergers related talent. I may be rambling a little as my blood sugar is a bit low thanks to an over enthusiastic insulin injection after supper and I'm currently quaffing some vanilla flavoured milk....liquid ice cream really, which kills two medical birds with one stone: sugar to raise the sugar levels and calcium for the dodgy bone density. Time to hassle OB up to bed so, until next time, here are the snow dogs, or at least I hope they're here as I'm having serious problems loading pictures. This should have been published two days ago....have a lovely weekend all. 

A CROW & PASTEL SNOW SCENES

Having a pony with you seems to make the more shy members of the animal kingdom less so in the face of an eager woman wielding a long lens. I have always had problems photographing crows and today I thought the shot below was as good as it was going to get. 

However, as we schlepped along the road, the solitary bird flew in front of us and landed in a lone Hawthorn tree. I leaned on Trigger's back to steady the camera and here are the results; I think they're okay.

Laughing at me:

As the snow started to melt at our level, the higher hills in the distance kept their white coats and the light seemed to paint the scene with pastel hues:

The dawn colours have been stunning too:

Trigger has been wearing his coat at night:

And not in the day.It's an itchy business wearing a coat.

I'd never managed to capture a wren and a few days ago I saw one flitting around in a gorse bush. They normally disappear before I've even turned the camera on but this one stayed for a couple of seconds. It never did reveal its head but this will do for me for the moment:

There was an amazing frost flower about eighteen inches in length one morning but it was in deep shadow and only this detail was in focus. Still amazing. Has anyone else seen any this year I wonder? Do let me know if you have.

OB played his first football match in goal for the school B team tonight. This is the boy who had no interest in team sports until 6 weeks ago. He did really well and made loads of saves. Two all; their best  result for years apparently. They're not great! My feet still haven't thawed out yet. So, until next time, here are the boys yesterday. No snow at all today. Have a great weekend.