Winter Solstice Rose

©MRL 2017

All blessings on you my lady

Great praise Irish Rose

For your blood red blooms

Unfolded birthed divine

A New Sun for days to lengthen

and 

Love to dance in Light!

©MRL 2017

NOCTURNAL NOISES

I am generally a very good sleeper and rarely get disturbed however, there are two or three times a year when I sleep with one ear cocked up as it were. At those times this old cottage becomes alive with odd nocturnal noises and perfumes which assail the nostrils.

The front door is frequently rapped as if a visitor has arrived and would like to be to be admitted. These sounds I ignore, for who at four in the morning makes a visit without calling out to the occupier ?

The perfumes vary from that of subtle flower blossoms to those of
exotic concoctions best found in dance halls and not the sort that the country women wear or at least not daily.

Last night, or to be specific early this morning, I was roused from sleep by the sound of tip, tip tapping, as if many feet were dancing on a board and the shrill sounds of merriment. 

I arose quietly and quickly from my bed and crept rapidly along the hall and down, down the ladder to the front room to spy on the merry-makers. Unfortunately I made the mistake of switching on the light and immediately all noise stopped.

The Suspects

Note:
Dancing Boards were very common in the Irish towns-lands many years ago and were low stage like structures made of wood and situated on wide roadside verges often near crossroads for people to dance on.

Seasonal Weather Unwelcome

We awoke this morning to an all-over whiteness everywhere, snow lay like a lovely, smooth velvet, that draped itself over our rural scene. 

Mrs H fed the birds who hopped here there and everywhere so the white mantle became pock-marked by their little feet or claws,alas !

We took photos, mine from indoors with the window wide open and then quickly closed again, as I enjoy fresh air but at a temperature that is above freezing. Mrs H, not hardier, just younger and more full of vigour, braved the outdoors. 

Well, we hope that you enjoy our photos.

Below is the worst winter that I have ever experienced, the Winter of 1963 when I was a youth working in the Teignmouth shipyard [Devon, England]; when the sea froze and there were large snowdrifts on the beach that the tide took simply ages to melt away and on Dartmoor fires were lit under lorries to thaw out the diesel which had waxed up.

Anyone For A Cuppa ?

We purchased a loose tea strainer the other day or perhaps you could call it a steeper - strainer. It is very efficient, easy to use and clean and cost very little.

I do not drink black tea and on the advice of my doctor I have recently stopped drinking coffee because it was raising my BP. My preferences now are for organic infusions and mainly Rooibos or Green tea (thank you Rachel)

Our new strainer is made by a German company Finum who call it a brewing basket. They also make a lot of other interesting applicators.

See for yourselves at http://www.finum.com

I think my fresh brew is now ready

to enjoy, so bye bye for now Heron.

Affirmation !

Time of 1615 Sunset at Birr, Co. Offaly on 1st Dec 2017 which I was unable to resist

and taken with my iPhone SE