January

The year started with cold crisp weather; a bit too cold and potentially slippery underfoot for venturing outside so an excellent reason to stay indoors. We didn't get the heavy snow of other places but enough fell, just into the second week, to change the world to somewhere magical where wild beasts prowl the pavements, and, more prosaically, to  block our drive and make getting the car out impossible. 

Then it suddenly faded away over night leaving the est of the month dull and dreary. We've thankfully had no dramatic deluges of rain but I feel it's been one of the most relentlessly damp winters I've known.

To cheer things up, I'd set hyacinth bulbs in December and now they were beginning to flower plus I treated myself to a bunch cheap supermarket daffodils, both welcome precursors of Spring flowers in the garden. 

To occupy me, I started the first of my Christmas present craft kits, three trolls/gnomes off on an adventure. This was an excellent project for short winter days as it mainly involved a little crafting followed by a longer period waiting for glue to dry

Then, while the rain continued to fall, I completed another Christmas present - a jigsaw representing plants from around the world.

As the month wore on, I thought I ought to make an effort to get back to a normal rhythm and undertake something a little more practical, checking my 'to-do' list and turning frozen tomatoes into passata, and pickling the 15p red cabbage left over from Christmas.

Towards the end of the month, things suddenly became busier. We headed up to Manchester to join my younger daughter and her fiance at the Bengali Sri Sri Saraswati celebration, and the next day (fortunately dry) visited Dunham Massey's Winter Garden.

Back home, seizing another dry day, we went out to Kedleston Hall to see more snowdrops in flower, I went out for tea and gossip with a neighbour, and by the end of the month I spotted crocus on one of my late afternoon local walks.

Spring is coming! .Days are noticeably longer and, with luck, the rain will eventually stop.

 

Kedleston Snowdrops

Having visited the winter garden at Dunham Massey, I decided local snowdrops would be flowering too, so the first sunny day we headed to Kedleston Hall to see how things were advancing there.

The path snaking through trees from visitor reception to the Pleasure Grounds was lined with clumps of flowers, and walking across the lawns a bank covered in snowdrops came into view. 

Elsewhere we found a really early flowering rhododendron - now at its pea yet but with its first blooms opening. 

Round on the front parkland, sheep obligingly stood to have their photos taken with the bridge and lakes in the background..

 

Dunham Massey winter garden

It's odd perhaps to think of  garden as a place to visit in winter, but Dunham Massey is one of those lucky places that have flowers, shrubs, and trees planted to look good in what you might consider a 'dead season'.

There are snowdrops, of course, hellebores, and aconites but also early flowering daffodils (though these were a little too far from the path to photograph with my phone).

Some of the trees have been deliberately picked for the appearance of their bark - cherry and dogwoods. 

There are scented shrubs like daphne and witch hazel, splendidly flowering camellias on the brink of breaking into blossom, and striking heads of hydrangeas.

All in all a lovely place to spend a (fortunately dry) January afternoon.

 

Bye bye Christmas, and on with the New Year

Christmas decorations are down and packed away for another year, and it feels like time to be getting back to normal.

Not in any sort of hurry though. 

Nice and easy is generally my attitude, and at this time of year I slow down even more. I'm embracing the New Year gently - taking the decorations down early to avoid a last minute rush, doing some essential ironing to avoid it overwhelming me, starting one of my new Christmas craft kits. 

To describe my Christmas as a hectic whirl seems a little (lot) over-exaggerating but after busy days with something planned for most of them - seeing family, playing board games, and such - I'm craving peace, quiet, and enjoying the lack of pressure to do anything.

It's not a time to rush headlong into New Year resolutions, or trying to get next year's gardening planned - there'll be time enough for tat soon

 




 

Christmas at Haddon Hall

On a wet dripping day just before Christmas we headed to Haddon. 

I'd intended to go earlier in the month while the Mercatum Christmas fair was taking place, but tickets for it sold out rapidly, and my hopes were dashed. After the Mercatum, the hall closes for a few days then re-opens decorated for Christmas, and this year a few of the stall-holders stayed on. That was enough to persuade me to visit - undoubtedly helped by my early Christmas present to myself of Historic Houses membership which allows free access to Haddon and many other stately homes. ( I intend to make next year one of exploration)

The imposing outer entrance, reached up a steep flight of steps, was once designed to keep people out but now it's a welcoming sight with twinkling lights inside.

Across the courtyard, the main entrance to the hall was again hung with festive decorations, and a most welcome reprieve from the heavy rain.

The great hall itself boasted a magnificent tree, and all the other rooms from kitchen to long gallery were decorated too.

Back outside and heading across the courtyard, my attention was caught by the open drains which captured the rain and fed it through pipes and out beyond the buildings to fall into the river. I've visited many times before but not in wet weather so this was something new! 












 

Kedleston Hall

Compared to other festively-decorated stately homes, Kedleston was a little subdued. The decorations themselves feeling similar to those you might have at home. Perhaps though, when the surroundings are so ostentatious, ornaments don't need to be.

We skipped the outdoor Advent trail this year as the weather was cold and drizzly - not the best connditions in which to explore outdoors.