The beautiful countryside around us has been shrouded in thick fog and covered in layer upon layer of frost for most of December. When I heard the lovely carol “In the bleak mid-winter” the other day I found it quite apt to describe our surroundings here – the earth is hard as iron (although it has thawed a little in places in the last 24 hours) and the water in the bird bath is hard as stone again. But no snow still. (Sigh)
So I’m afraid I cannot post any pretty photos of frost covered pine trees, glittering in the sun with a blue sky beyond…. but I can offer a glimpse of our black and white world instead.
And I can wish you all a very Happy Christmas too!
I hope you have the opportunity to relax over the holidays, spend time with loved ones, read a good book or just chill out in front of a warm fireplace with a hot mug of tea…
Many warm wishes to you all!
😀
It may not be blue skies where you are, Cathy, but your photos show a beautiful landscape. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Sam x
Thanks Sam. You too!
Frohe Weihnachten!
Frohe Weihnachten!
I still think it is lovely in black and white. Merry Christmas Cathy!
Lovely to hear from you Donna. Happy Christmas! And I hope all is well with you. 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Happy Christmas Marian!
Wonderful photos Cathy. Merry times.
Thanks Susie. You too!
I love the wintry photos. Merry Christmas!
Thank you! Happy Christmas to and yours too!
Gorgeous, Cathy!
A very Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy New Year to you and your loved ones.
Thank you Dina. Hope you are having a lovely Christmas too. 🙂
A very sweet post for this special time of year. Merry, Merry!
Thanks John! Have a great day!
Hope you get your snow – better than fog, that’s for sure! Best wishes to you and your family, Cathy
Thank you Cathy. Snow might be on the cards yet, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. 🙂
I remember being in Bavaria when everything was white from frozen fog, very much like your photos. Wishing you and your family the warmest wishes for Christmas and the new year.
Thank you Karen. Yes, it is often the case here in our valley that we get fog in winter, but it does make the trees look pretty and is second best to snow!
What a stunningly beautiful countryside, Cathy. Warm wishes for a happy Christmas, and hope for a lovely falling snow.
I may have to settle for the frost and the wordpress snow for now! 😉
LOL. I love the WordPress snow, and find that I look forward to it every year.
I prefer black and white pictures (although I LOVE LOVE your colored photos of your herbs and flowers!!!) because they focus on the feeling of the scene – black and white denotes MOOD. And I dreamed about an English Fog in the countryside this morning. Therefore, seeing your photo of fog in Germany makes me smile! Cheers! And MERRY MERRY! 🙂
Merry Christmas! Glad you liked the photos, which are actually ‘colour’ photos without being altered at all. The world is less black and white today though, as it is thawing, and it is more of a muddy brown and grey! 😉
AH, yes, the power of photo-shop! 🙂
No photoshop – it really looks like that in ‘colour’! The landscape was so drained of any colour that it really looked like it was a black and white photo! 😉
Oh okay — it was what you said about it “not being altered at all, that made me think of mechanical tinkering. I like the real reason better!
Happy Christmas Cathy!
And to you! 🙂
I love your frosty trees. We don’t see that very often here. Happy Christmas Cathy.
Hope you enjoyed your Christmas too. We are now getting a bit of the wind from the storms that swept across the UK and the frost has magically vanished!
A happy Christmas to you, Cathy.
Did you know that the music for “In the Bleak Midwinter” was written by Gustav Holst, composer of “The Planets”? Such a poignant Christmas song.
Thank you Steve. And Happy Christmas to you too! I didn’t know Holst had written the music (or had perhaps forgotten) but I do know the words were written by Christina Rosetti. As there are two melodies popular in the UK I just looked it up – the other one, which I don’t like as much, was written by a man called Harold Darke.
I’d done the same looking-up before I left my comment, just to make sure I correctly remembered Holst. Only then did I learn about the second melody. As with you, it’s the Holst melody that gets to me.
It’s lovely seeing your winterscapes, Cathy 🙂 – gorgeous photos in their winter monochrome! Where I lived previously (Kansas City), winter was usually a case of various browns, which could also be pretty; few conifers grew well there and snow occurred only a few times a winter. Despite which, it got quite cold!
Thanks to you and Steve above for the info on the two versions of “In the Bleak Midwinter”!
I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Day!
Thank you Amy. The frost has now melted as milder winds sweep across the country. But we may see some snow soon… I hope so anyway!
Hope you had a lovely Christmas. 🙂
Lovely frost! Almost as good as snow, but no shoveling. 🙂
That is a very good point Eliza… although a little shoveliing would do me good after all those Christmas nibbles! 😉
😀 Haha, I know what you mean. I’ve got to get myself back to healthier-eating, too.
i like the wintry photographs. Merry Christmas!
Thank you. And a Happy New Year!
I cherish the frigid photographs. Cheerful Christmas!
Thanks!