Alfred Tennyson’s famous words:
“Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow…”
What snow?! I think I need to change that line to “green, green grass”!
Here’s the view today, as the light faded at around 3.30pm (compare with the next photo, taken last summer!)
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And my message for 2014…
Embrace the new year with upturned eyes and an open heart
Look forward, stride forward, over new ground
Leaving footprints behind you as you step into the unknown
It’s time once again for me to thank you all for a great blogging year.
Thank you for being there, for liking and commenting on my posts, for your loyalty and support, and for putting out such inspiring, interesting and positive posts yourselves. All this means an AWFUL lot to me!
So now I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year, full of joy and harmony, kindness and laughter, and good food and flowers! I hope it brings with it all you could wish for.
Talking of wishes, here are a few things I’m hoping for this coming year….
A sudden exodus of slugs and snails to the woods beyond the garden
Success with my poppy seeds
That our resident mole does not bring his family with him to settle down for good
A glimpse of a rare butterfly
To smell the elusive scent of Hepaticas in the woods this spring
Time for the hammock (and no mosquitoes!)
Plenty of sunshine
😀
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What are your hopes for 2014?
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Words and Herbs 
Buon anno 2014 a Te alla Tua cara famiglia!
Un cordiale saluto
Claudio
Thank you Claudio – to you too!
Happy New Year Cathy! It has been a pleasure to get to know you this year and enjoy your lovely blog!
And to you! Here’s to the next year of sharing! 😀
Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to another year of your blog 🙂
To you too Frank – look forward to seeing your garden in spring too!
Striking difference between the first two shots, but your view really holds up in winter with all the interesting plantings you have. Happy New Year to you!
Today was so dreary I waited as long as I could to take the photo in case the sun appeared… the contrast is even greater though. I can’t quite believe it’s the same spot! 😉 Have a great 2014 Susie!
Happy New Year to you, too!
Hope it’s a good one for you too Cindy!
And a very happy new year to you! See you in 2014:)
Thanks – look forward to seeing you in the new year!
Wishing you all the best in the New Year and that your wishes become realities.
Happy New Year to you as well! Your garden still looks wonderful. I can not wait to see what other treasures you have to blog about this up and coming year!
Thanks Flora – look forward to seeing you in the new year too! 😀
Thank you so much Karen! Have a lovely start to 2014!
Happy New Year to you and your family, I hope you have a wonderful year gardening in 2014!
I wish you the same Pauline – and good health too!
The same to you Cathy, may your new year be so very spiritually prosperous!
Thanks a lot Wendell!
A lovely post, thank you 🙂
Happy New Year!
Thanks – you too!
What a lovely message for the new year, Cathy. I find it very inspiring. And in particular I hope you catch a glimpse of that rare butterfly. What a joy that would be. I really hope to enjoy my garden more this year. You really have promoted some of that. I’m thinking more about fragrance! Blessings to you in 2014!! ox
Thank you Debra. I do appreciate your thoughtful comments and am so glad we have met! I wish you lots of luck and enjoyment in your garden this year. 😀
The best for the New Year to you and yours and that garden we have learned to love also! Perhaps a ring of small dishes filled with beer outside the perimeter of the main beds would kind’of decimate the snail and slug population 🙂 ? [Hmm, it IS still snowing on your blog 😀 !!!]
Thanks Eha! We have literally hundreds of snails when it’s damp – they all come out of the woods next to my garden. I think the beer might just tempt them to invite their friends and cousins and have a party in my flower beds! 😉 Have a great year Eha!
Happy New Year Cathy, your message is quite lovely and one to inspire and strive for, every good wish for a fabulous 2014, Julie.x
You too Julie, and thanks for your visits and comments in 2013!
A Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your beloved ones, Cathy!
I love your inspiring message for 2014 – seems to me like poetry!
My hopes for the new year are especially health for my family and me, to spend more time with my husband, a sunny garden year with much time to enjoy scents and colours, time to see and enjoy the little beautiful things of life and … that the moles or voles having already settled may leave our garden and … that the missing swallowtail may return…
Hugs to you, dear Cathy, from Elisabeth!
Thanks Elisabeth – best wishes to you and Kurt too. Let’s hope for lots of butterflies this summer! 😀
Hi Cathy, Happy New Year to you! ~ and may your wishes come true 😉
Let´s have a wonderful year ahaed! Uta
Hope your wishes also come true Uta! 😀
Happy, Happy New Year, Cathy! May all your wishes be granted…
Won’t be long now, until the sun is warm and the breeze is fresh and we’ll all be back in the garden!
Now that is what I call positive thinking! Thanks Marie – pink is apparently the colour for 2014, so let’s think pink. Just the thought of warm sunshine will keep us going till spring!
Hope those wishes come true Cathy. May the new year treat you and your garden kindly! xxx
Thank you very much Anna – I hope the same for you as well! 😀
All the best to you too, Cathy.
Thanks Lindsay! 😀
Dear Cathy, I’ve very much enjoyed following your blog as it’s so thoughtful and beautiful. May 2014 be a wonderful year for you – keep your ability to see, hear and feel and before you know it your garden will look again as green and colourful as on your 2nd picture. Best wishes 🙂
Thanks for your lovely comment Annette. Yes, spring will be here before we know it and whether we can believe it or not everything will flourish again! 😀
Hope all your 2014 wishes come true! I look forward to reading your blog for another year.
Thank you Jason – the same goes for your blog too. I enjoy your posts very much!
Happy New Year! I sympathise with you on the mole problem ours definitely have a happy family life . Amelia
Happy New Year Amelia! If you ever find a secret how to deter the moles, do let me know! 😉
Happy new year Cathy! I’m looking forward to seeing the blog post with photos of a long line of slugs and snails heading off towards the woods!
Oh wouldn’t that be funny…lovely image! Maybe I should put the beer traps that Eha suggested up in the woods to entice them all away! Happy New Year Sarah!
Happy New Year to you too! I hear you with the moles! we seem to have a whole heap of them at our allotment. May they peacefully find another home soon!
Thanks Urvashi. I would dig them a new home myself if only they’d move to the field beyond our gate! 😉
Lovely new year wishes, definitely hope you find time for the hammock! Hope you have a wonderful 2014 Cathy!
Thanks Andrea. We had the heat for the hammocks last summer, but so many midges in the shade after a wet May and June – it was impossible to relax!
It is the light rather than the heat that makes all the difference isn’t it? Thank YOU for reading and commenting on my blog throughout the year and for sharing your life with us. I too appreciate it more than I can say; maybe because we are two brits living abroad? Have a great 2014 with love, Christina
Thank you Christina! Yes, it’s so good to be in touch with like-minded people around the world. 😀
Thank you for your good wishes Cathy and many more in return to you. I love the first two shots – a glimpse of what is to come, perfect for a wet grey stormy day on the south coast! And could all slugs go and live in the woods? Cx
Thanks Claire! I’m putting up signs this year: “No slugs or snails”… think they can read? 😉
Happy New Year to you, Cathy. Looking forward to watching your garden grow this year. 🙂
Thank you Gwynne. At this time of year I never can believe anything will ever grow out there again, and then it amazes me when it does! 😀
I love your wishes – I hope they all come true! 🙂
Thanks Sheryl – hope your wishes for 2014 come true as well!
Cathy, what a lovely post! I hope your hopes come true for the new year!
It is too bad the mole can’t find another home and just come by for visits from time to time. You never know, maybe he’ll meet a lady mole and move into her apartment. 😉
Thank you! Now that would be great… I bet it would be much cosier and tidier than his own “digs”! (That’s British slang for rented premises… I just couldn’t resisit the pun!) 😉
That is funny Cathy. 😀
Love your wishes…I do love your garden views and the flowers in the grass….Happy New Year Cathy!
Thank you, and to you too. The pictures of summer greenery are so heartening in the middle of a grey winter. Wish we could have just a little snow to brighten things up! 😉