All things cold.

Classic Rock and Roll imagery. Picking up sticks, peasant style!



I thought about doing a New Year's Eve post, it didn't happen, I thought about compiling some kind of a memorable list, just like every other blogger out there, it didn't happen. Oh well, ne'er mind.

The gardening year has got off to a very grueling start, as a skateboarder down at the local park said at the weekend, " Its harsh conditions for skating". I've never witnessed skateboarding on ice, but I have now! On the run up to Christmas we were shoveling snow from the college paths, and apparently at the same time a small group of hardcore skaters cleared several inches of snow from the park ramps so that they could use them. Anyway, enough of skating.



In the first half hour of the day we managed to break a key inside a frozen padlock, note to self, remember to boil a kettle tomorrow. A frigid Robin tried to seek shelter in both the tool sheds and the Bothy, and the college cat could be seen slinking around the compost heaps looking for frozen rats.

In this kind of weather, especially where the garden remains locked in frost all day long, there is a limit to outdoor activities. However, after the recent snowfall there were large amounts of twigs and branches strewn about the lawns, so we set about picking them up and filling our barrows till they looked like giant Stork nests. I felt like the old peasant guy, pictured on the sleeve of that very famous album, "mmm, I wonder which one?"

All the guide books tell you not to prune in frosty conditions, but we do it every year, and every year it makes no difference, so with that in mind we spent the rest of the day pruning and tying in the Grape vines and butchering/taming some very vigorous climbing Roses. By the day's end, the brassy glare of the sun turned the bare vines the colour of adobe. Problem was we were all too cold to appreciate its beauty!

On another note, for those of you who know my interest in comics, I've been enjoying reading my Christmas present, the absolute edition of Justice League - The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke, an enormous wedge of beautiful art that's heavy enough to cause a serious injury if it were to fall from its perch.