Winter is coming ...

December Saturdays were meant for snoozing after the savage 6.30am alarm calls of the preceding week.  That was the plan anyway.  I had designated the bedroom a 'Do Not Disturb' zone until at least 9am.  It was still dark when Man got home from work, bringing me gifts of  hot coffee and freezing, ice block feet.  I was warm and drowsy, happy to drift in and out of snoozedom for a good while longer whilst he got his head down for a couple of hours.  I hadn't reckoned with the buzzsaw of his snoring however.  There are some noises I just can't tolerate and that's one of them.  Bless him.  He crawled into bed knackered and zonked out almost immediately, his coffee cooling on the bedside table.  As sleep claimed him, I became wide awake and lay gritting my teeth and pretending to ignore it for a while.  Nope.  I defy anyone to doze when they have the equivalent noise of a jet engine next to them.

I got up (in a bit of a huff if I'm honest), looked outside and saw that Jack Frost had been at work.  I had  plenty to do at home, but had a bit of a 'sod it' moment,  and so donned boots, my fluffy cardi and a scarf (yes I had other clothes on too - I'm not that brave, and neither is the rest of the world at large!!) and, after feeding Charlie Cat and Charlie Chicken, let a deliriously happy Hooligan Hound out into the field.  

Ooh it was so beautiful.  The kind of morning when the clarity of light is diamond sharp and the frost is so heavy it stands up in discernible crystals on leaves and fences. 

The ground was hard, but the watery winter sun had already begun to thaw it in places.  In patches it was slushy.  In another few steps where a shadow fell,  it was crunchy.  Slunchy maybe?

Here's some pics:-

A thawing puddle

I love the way these ivy leaves were edged with frost, like someone had taken a glitter pen to outline them. 

Needless to say my mood had improved when I got home. Another mug of coffee, a trawl through blogland and a browse through my photographs and I was as good as new!  

Can't say the same about my poor old boots though!!

See you soon! xxx