Imbolc - Spring is Coming

Hello again blog friends - hope you hadn't forgotten me :-) Leigh has not been well so no-one has been around to put up my posts but things should be back to normal again now. As you can see from this photo the snow has gone and the sun is shining and today is the Celtic festival of Imbolc - the beginning of Spring.

The bulbs are pushing their way up to the sun and the garden is all coming to life again. Imbolc is a Gaelic word and it means 'in the belly' - not as in scrummy snacks but more like 'pregnant'  as this is the time of year when animals are having their young....and maybe I will be one of them (but that's supposed to be a secret :-))

Quickly moving on....some more interesting titbits about Imbolc - it was the ancient festival of Brigid who was a pagan goddess of the Sun, fire and the hearth and among her symbols are the snowdrop - bringing the hope of Spring coming even while winter is still here.

Another of her symbols is the swan which mates for life and represents loyalty and faithfulness (I think it could have been a dog myself as we are pretty loyal too :-) And her colours are white, silver and green.

It is so warm today that Lace thought she would come out to enjoy some sun too.

And here I am gathering up some seeds that the birds have dropped as another tradition of this festival is seed cake :-) I just knew there couldn't be a festival without some food there somewhere!

More of the white stuff

Just as I thought the snow was melting - last night it came down while we were asleep and we woke up to this!! I do NOT like snow - I am a warm, dry weather sort of girl and this is not my favourite time of year which is why there are not so many pictures of me on the blog just now. Trilby and Aoife and Crybbe love it - I can't think why?

The hens were not impressed though and didn't want to come out of the coop this morning !

But Trilby was raring to go and explore!

Aoife was digging about and got covered in little snowflakes - as you can see she will not wear a jumper to go out.

Whereas I have my fleece hoodie from last year...

..and Trilby got ANOTHER new jumper yesterday when she went out with Judith & Leigh on a shopping trip.

But in the end even she thought a warm bed sounded good so we settled down for a snooze together :-)

It's getting colder..!

This was the view down our garden yesterday morning - it is so-o cold everything is spiky with frost.

This cat on the garden ornament looks a bit scary :-)

Satin and Lace, our cats, are staying in all day lying on the back of the sofa toasting their toes against the radiator. But Trilby loves the snow and doesn't mind the cold but she has to wear her winter jumper when she goes out to play.

She likes to run out in the garden with a toy and then leave it in case she wants it another day. This was her latest poor toy out in the snow!

Of course Aoife tries to get outside quick before she gets a jumper on:

Here she is hiding to jump on Trilby :-)

Well more snow is supposed to be coming here this weekend - maybe we should hibernate...

Snow..snow!

Today it snowed - the first time this year and it was Trilby's first sight of snow!

This is one of the trees in our garden laden with the white stuff!

We ran down the garden when we saw it had turned white.

Trilby could hardly believe it - she loved the snow.

She poked her tongue out at Aoife...

and Aoife stuck hers out too - I think they wanted to taste the snow.

Aoife got quite snow covered but she just shook it off.

Poor Trilby had her furnishings full of snowballs when she came in and had to have them showered out with warm water :-(

Snowdrops & Scottie Dogs

It has been quite cold and wet here in Yorkshire for weeks really and now they say it is going to snow! But today the garden plants thought it might be Spring. The snowdrops are coming up in the border:

and the witch hazel has come out in blossom:

We had a good explore of the garden for other flowers - Trilby checked the vegetable plot:

but nothing there yet...Crybbe just sat all wise like a little black owl - 'I could have told you that'

Well - just checking...

so we all went back in and found Leigh having coffee and biscuits - and what biscuits! They were Scottie Dog biscuits!!

I thought they might have been biscuits for Scottie dogs and was about to ask what happened to the schnauzer biscuits when Leigh said they were biscuits for peeps just shaped like Scotties!! 

I have never actually met a Scottie dog in the furs as they are not very common round here but I have some Scottie friends in Blogville who live in Australia. I am hoping they are all OK as I saw on TV there were terrible fires in the hot weather out there. We're thinking of all the Australian peeps and their dogs - Scotties, schnauzers and all the others too.

Hugs from me and Trilby and hope you are keeping safe :-)

Wordless Wednesday - a bed for three

New Year Family Outing

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR BLOGGY FRIENDS!

Sorry that I have not blogged for ages but we have had illness here :-( - Judith & Leigh fell ill with a bug and there has been a Christmas of coughing and sneezing and blankets on the sofa...and not many outings at all. Then on New Year's Day the rain stopped and the sun came out and the peeps rallied to take us all out for the day to our favourite stately home - Castle Howard :-) We were met at the gates by a peacock:

and we went in to explore the grounds.

As you may be able to see it was very muddy and squelchy because of all the rain we've been having - and very cold but the sun was shining brightly. I borrowed Trilby's new fleece jumper because I've had my furs stripped out and I needed something warm!

This is the Temple of the Four Winds and they were all blowing that day.

There were beautiful views from the Temple and after wandering round and a bit of furtling we headed back .

Here we are having a rest near the lake.

The fountain has been drained and there was only rainwater in it but it was still very impressive.

We found this interesting statue too - where the stone plinth has been carved with landscapes all round.

We had a good day there and even a chance for Judith & Leigh to do what they like best - have a hot chocolate and cake in the cafe - and then time to go home for a snooze.