Winter is coming

I had to take a picture when Yasmin made these pretty
paw prints on the frozen bannister today.

Yes, I am one of those (hooked on Game of Thrones). But winter IS coming and that means the end for my leaf jewelry until May next year. It's sort of nice - all summer long I am in search of perfect willow leaves and have in the back of my head that I should make some more fern rings or pendants before it's too late. But now it's too late, and I feel pretty good about it! Those of you who have gardens will recognize the feeling: spring and summer are glorious times in the garden but are filled with musts, shoulds and have to's.

Winter is the quiet time where nothing needs to be done (except shovelling snow, which I will ignore for now). Without winter, I wouldn't enjoy spring and summer as much.

The last of the green leaves are now on their way out.
Here the raspberry leaves that give their pretty texture
to my small post earrings with leaf texture. 

Little bird at the bowl of peanuts. Winter is high season
for the birds.

For my jewelry, I wouldn't enjoy making leaf jewelry as much in summer if I didn't have that winter break. I should really focus on my vast stone collection and try to make it a little smaller (I'm starting to believe it is impossible).

A warm summer's day..

PAW2011-1, originally uploaded by SilverBlueberry.

This picture shows the paw print of my cat Cookie on a frosty porch. Poor Cookie. She is a heat-loving kitty. In summer she lies in sunny corners and sleeps, then stretches, rolls a little, sleeps again, stretches again, etc. In winter, none of these favorite activities are very pleasant. It's cold outside, there is no sun of significance and all the favorite spots are covered with that stuff she always forgets about during summer - snow.

The past winters have had very heavy snowfall - all the worse for Cookie! But she does go out every day. And that little paw print there represents that feeling we can all have on dark winter days - we don't want to get up in the dark and get home from work in the dark. We'd rather cuddle up at home and hibernate, and think of warm summer days when the breeze hits us softly and the sun is almost too warm..

I do like winter. The break from the garden work. Everything is waiting as buds on the trees or bulbs and roots underground. Mice have dug tunnels through the snow and walk around there unnoticed. The beach season is far away and everything is still possible. If only there would be a little more light. ;)

Frosty is approaching

The signs are clear. The fish in our pond have been strangely absent from the surface lately, not eating their food. They had been growing fatter and fatter as autumn proceeded, and this weekend we fished them up and put them in a dark container for their winter sleep. Birds have been flocking around the basket we start filling with sunflower seeds some time in autumn. They eat about a basket per day right now! It gets crazy there sometimes and Yasmin the cat loves to sit in the tree under the basket and keep watch.

So far there has been frost a few times, but it has been warm-ish in between and I have been able to use leaves for my jewelry projects as before. But now that ship has sailed. This morning we had ice on the pond and at sunset the ice was still there.

Cold!


The fern I use to make my fern rings has given up for this year:

Cookie, our other cat is often staying indoors despite nice sunny weather. We try to tell her, Cookie, it will get worse! Remember last year when we had snow from December to April and you were so frustrated we had to change the sofa cloth the following spring? So go out while there is no snow! So she goes out for a minute or two and sits in the sun, and then she goes back inside, where its warm.

But so far it is so very pretty outside, look here:

And some brave flowers still hold out, but not for long..