December 31st

we start in winter

dark days of gale, frosty breath

in watery sun

 

till the axis tips

into her majestic arms

and we are bathed in

 

her spring coat of green

the world bursts in bright colour

and a smile conquers

 

our hearts through summer

the moors alive with new birth

till the autumn fall

 

of gold leaf litter

the fungi bloat in shadow

the nourishing rain

 

and the coming cold

the flakes of new snow tumble

we end in winter

 

That’s it. All done. Thank you to all of you who have read my Haikus. Much love to you and your loved ones for 2013. xxx

December 23rd

warm cloaked adventure

cheerful visitations to

family and tree

 

We were dropping off presents today!

December 21st

 

midwinter dawning

ice age hill shrouded in mist

backlit with a jewel

I drove past Pegsdon Hills today. The mist was covering the top of them. The sun was muted behind it, diffusing the light such that it looked like the whole hill was alive with a wild glow. It was stunning. Clearly I couldn’t take a picture as I was driving and I had so much work to do, I couldn’t stop, but for that brief moment my mind was free of meaningless first world problems. Nature and natural forces are inspirational.

I always feel happy on midwinters day, it’s the time of year when the days slowly recover. I’m acutely aware of the encroaching darkness as the days shrink and the miserable rain and cloud come in. So today is the shortest day, tomorrow the day will be longer, imperceptibly so, but the thought of it makes me happy. This has been a year of reflection and sadness, I hope by March with the coming of colour and Spring, something will thaw in me too.

December 15th

 

bashful lights peeking

from the Christmas tree filled with

bright birds winter warmed

Our Christmas Tree is up, one day we’ll have enough bird decorations to avoid needing baubles. A christmas tree, in my own home, always makes me happy.

 

December 6th

that autumn harvest

of sloes plucked and pricked after

the first biting frost

slung and barrel sloshed

slow weeping their heady tears

in sugary gin

with the fire spreading

around the blood, red faced smiles

a rain repellent!

 

A little tribute to Sloe Gin. We met up with friends for a festive catch up. Our friend Neil had a glass of a Spanish version of Sloe Gin in our favourite Clerkenwell restaurant Medcalf. I had a dessert wine but should have got that too! It was slightly aniseed-ish, but not overpowering like a pastis or ouzo. Was a lovely subtle drink. So warming on a winter’s evening. Debbie made some Sloe gin at home, we still have some left. The process of collecting and making it, from the astringent sloe berries, mixed in a sugar and gin solution. Sloshing it around every once in a while. In a few short months, it is ready. Delicious.

When we left Medcalf, the rain was battering down. After that sort of drink though, there is a force field of red faced warmth, burning the rain before it hits you!

December 3rd

mistletoe thriving

in the sun blessed barren trees

winter kisses wait

November 30th

the glitter of frost

smothers the morning hurry

secret warmth returns

 

When it’s just above freezing, but the sun makes you feel warm? That!

November 29th

eastern horizon

lazy sun clambers into

a bright winter sky

September 23rd

 

Night circles the Day

shears the edges with winter

blades and rain soaked chill

I heard on the weather report that the day is now officially shorter than night, the autumn solstice has passed. Of course it’s an inevitability with the change in the seasons. But to hear it brought it home. The weather is gloomy and wet. I think I’ve had my last day of the year without needing a jacket. As they say in Game of Thrones, Winter is Coming.

May 15th

 

Run, wind whipped beast flayed

the cold weight of rain burdens

Feral teeth laid bare

It was bloody cold playing football, I was soaked. My hands were shaking. This sounds really whingey I’m sure, but it shows heavy rain chills the bones more than cold air. I’ve played in the winter, but it didn’t rain. Just goes to show, you have to keep moving, keep your core temperature up! Don’t stop!

And we lost. I actually played better when I got cold though, cold also focuses the mind, made me more impulsive in my decision making, brings out the primitive part of the brain when the body feels threatened (and made me less lazy).

I’m an animal. haha.

May 6th

winter’s brittle wreath

the dead holly bite toothless

disintegrating

I saw the Christmas wreath Debbie made in a green recycle bag, the one made with twined willow and holly leaf and berry, so colourful and lovely, the one she put on our front door. Well, it’s had it basically. Old and brittle and brown.

Under seven months till Christmas!

April 22nd

Gaze turns to the oak

eater of storms and vivid

in the solar glare

 

The oak tree visible from our back window is impressive, that distinctive shape, the arc of branches, that sturdy trunk, unyielding. It’s anytime going to be sprouting green, at the moment it still hints at winter, with it’s barren appearance. It does not detract from how magnificent it looks. Especially when the sun bathes it in light and the clouds behind it are black and threatening. Only an oak can hold it’s own when the weather makes war with itself.

Here is a pic of it I took earlier this evening.

April 10th

Roused from their slumber

bearded green men stretch their limbs

verdant hands open

 

Driving to work I noticed the trees looked like people, some of them had beards or cloaks made of ivy, they were no longer naked, forced to stand through the dark winter. Leaves were growing on their cold limbs. Their arms were stretched up rejoicing in the Spring. This time of year is wonderful. I keep saying it don’t I?

March 31st

Winter blows a kiss

A stony chill descending

Grey squirrel grey sky

March 11th

 

Queen bee emerges,

Crawls from the sombre litter,

Leaps into sunlight.

 

Saw a bumblebee (again) today. Second one of the year! It was up on the ridge at the top of Pegsdon Hills. Was almost certainly a Queen considering the time of year. Unlike honey bees, the poor bumbles only live a few months, the Queens just one year. They form relatively tiny colonies, compared to the thousands in the honeybee hive (who hibernate over winter). Before the old Queen died in the Autumn, she laid some regal eggs, these bumblebee Queens flew away after being fertilised by a male, finding safe warm havens to survive the winter. In spring, they emerge, looking for a spot to create their colony, to being the process again.

I wish her luck! With her bizarrely impossible aerodynamics!

March 4th

A curtain of spray,

Bloated heavy sleet collides,

Snowflakes unfulfilled.

 

It snowed, nearly.

February 29th

Mischievous voices,

The laughter of woodpeckers,

Spun through the grasses.

 

Went for a run with my neighbour and friend Bob, we both needed an incentive. The winter has been so dry the moors were fine to run on. It seemed at every turn a Green Woodpecker would make that very distinctive laughing call. Laughing at our efforts no doubt. Well Mr Yaffle, we’re getting faster, so there!

Here’s a couple of photos I took, from only a couple of weeks ago, when we had our cold snap and our snow. The weather is so mild now so it feels like a sudden transition. Green Woodpeckers are one of my favourite birds, that exotic green in a bird so large. And that red flash on its neck. I remember the excitement I felt the first time I saw one, it’s just such a good looking bird.

We were lucky to see this one, I assume it was digging for food at the time.

  

February 24th

 

Old twisted peat cart,

I followed your buried tracks,

As you sink and rust.

 

In the moors there is an old discarded peat cart, when I first lived in the area it actually looked like a peat cart, but over the years it has slowly deteriorated and sunk into the peat it used to carry to the edge of the moor, where it would be unloaded. I wanted to capture a sense of melancholy about it, everything returns to the earth at some point.

I don’t know how old the cart is, but peat extraction was still an industry in the area until the 1960s. The location of the peat cart is in one of the wettest areas of Flitwick moor. It’s quite hard to see in this photo, but I wanted show how wet the area is. There are a lot of silver birches in the moors as well, as can be seen by the tree on the left.

A closer view of the peat cart.

And finally a photo of this part of the moor, with another silver birch, it is exceptionally peaty and wet here in winter, so when I’m running, I have to walk through, making sure to not roll my ankle or lose half my leg in a mucky peat puddle! Anyway, it was a beautiful day today, the woods and moors were full of bird song. Their battle to establish territory has begun.

February 18th

 

Hummingbird darting,

Skims page, Bronze, red cloak flower,

Nectar, Earth, Water.

 

I was writing a blog about one of my favourite books earlier today, Persian Fire. I read it when we were on our honeymoon in St Lucia. Reading about ancient battle whilst sitting watching the hummingbirds flitting about is a beautiful memory.

Today it was hammering it down with rain. February is always the saddest month for me, where winter arcs, where the cold is worst. But March is coming. That means Spring.

February 11th

Ice miracle, dawn,

Splintered light, diamonds scattered,

Mist cowled serpent coiled.

 

I drove to Hertford this morning, was babysitting for my two young nephews. The sights along the way were breathtaking. Because it had been so cold and dry overnight (the air temperature was –12C when I was driving around 9am) it meant a rare phenomenon occurred. A hoarfrost. Where the moisture in the air freezes on trees and plantlife, leaving it looking like something out of Narnia. Completely white and glittering like jewels. It truly felt like a magical kingdom I had no right to witness. I’d woken up to a new world.

Pegsdon Hills looked magnificent and beautiful. I imagined an old ice serpent, an ancient dragon, stirred from a long slumber, who in its waking had frozen the land hard but left it staggeringly beautiful in its harshness.

I didn’t have my camera, I would have stopped and snapped at the sky, at the rolling mist, at the crazy light refracting through the ice everywhere so you couldn’t tell where the sun was in the sky. It was magical, some days make you truly appreciate being alive.