Baby it's cold outside

Well I'm happy to back, having hopped,skipped and jumped over the "Festive Season"."The weather outside is frightful" as the song says, but I'm enjoying the white-out and the sense of isolation and muffled quiet that it brings to everything.

And as is common when we get easterly weather sweeping in off the steppes we are getting a number of interesting visiting birds, I've had fieldfares in the garden, stripping the remains of the rosehips, and cormorants and goosanders have been driven up from the frozen estuary onto the deeper water of the river inland. One of the photos here is of an almost Japanese print-like shot of one of these cormorants trying to dry his wings. The other two are of cardoon seedheads, in the artichoke family, covered in snow, and icicles hanging down below one of the town's bridges.

I think we are heading for the coldest winter I've known since I was young girl and I'm dreading how many plants might get snuffed out in the garden - although they will create welcome spaces for new things.

Meanwhile I'm happily using the time indoors to have a clear out, the older I get the more minimalist I get, and today I spent a happy hour up a step ladder pulling out part of the bookcase and reorganising my poetry, photography and gardening sections. Although I have to confess I spent more time reading than tidying.

I've also had a great time reading Calder Wood Press' catalogue of pamphlets, so that I can give Colin a bit of help on the website, though to be honest he doesn't really need it, as he has everything set up really efficiently.

I also sent Sally Evans a wee bit of video on her bee talk at the Callander Poetry Festival back in the autumn. I really enjoyed hearing her speak so knowledgably on the subject, and it has only increased my yen to have a hive, as well as some bantam hens. Sally has added it to an fantastic new section she has on her website, which is all about bees, click here

Oh and some RFA veterans have done a lovely tribute to my grandfather, see here