Winter and a Calendar

Winter has returned but her frozen cloak has been tossed aside for now. There are primroses in flower in the garden and the days have been mild. The birds have feasted on all the holly berries and now the tree is empty.  My holly picked a few weeks back, sits waiting in a bucket in the greenhouse. All ready to be brought indoors and tucked behind picture frames.

Inside It's beginning to look a little festive.  The piano had a good dusting and I even cleaned the faerie house out too. :)

Nine doors have already been opened in my Advent calendar. Nine! already! :-o and here my mind is still in October....
The Advent calendar is an old one, which I'm recycling because it's so pretty and because the teen hobbit has a chocolate one which is a little uninspiring to look at. Whoops, sorry chocolate companies!  ;) 

In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors. ~ William Blake
                                       ~*~
It's been busy here, packing up orders, making more cards and trying to snatch time in between to do a little of my own Christmas shopping. On top of that I decided quite late, to do a 2016 Calendar. 
I've been waiting for them to arrive for a while now, wishing them here as time is ticking on of course. Anyway they are finally here!  And now in the shop! 

When opened out the calendar is A3 in size. Plenty of room to write things in the boxes and 13 pictures of my Artwork. One picture a month and an extra picture in the centre fold which can be used as an A4 poster afterwards.

  ~*~

                                                                  

Frozen Beauty

I can't quite believe that again, we have arrived at the end of a year. A week ago, in the wild and stormy night, we lost a tree. It was an old elder that had died, but was host to a huge tangle of ivy. There had been nests over the years within it's sprawling greenery. A blackbird raised it's young, a pigeon sadly lost it's mate to a bird of prey and sparrows liked to meet up and chatter there. Now there is a space and the light is shining in. The old has gone and a new opportunity for something else to grow has occurred.  A little like a new year.

Yesterday morning, all began frozen.
 I restocked the bird table, then went for a wander.

The old year shone bright and filled with sparkle.

As the sun burned through to melt the ice, a glimpse of Spring was snatched. A blue clear sky glowed new and fresh with promise.

Now as I sit here finishing this post, the frosted day of yesterday is just a memory. It's just before dawn and outside the wind has returned. It growls in the chimney and rattles the tree bones again. The wind chimes are no longer hanging gently from a holly branch, they are high on a ships mast,  being battered on a stormy sea. Is it the old year furiously trying to hang on, or the new one telling the old it's time is up? The stirring up and clearing out of the dead wood to let the new emerge. Later today there will be kindling galore to collect.
I hope that you all had a wonderful festive time this last week. Thank you all for your comments of merry wishes. :)
May the new year bring peace and light to all.
X

'Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world'
                                                                                                           - Archbishop Desmond Tutu