Christmas Trees



We've been 'darn sarf' (as some of the locals up here like to pronounce it, in Mockney accents) over Christmas, and with all due respect to the dear friends and family who welcomed us over the Festive Season, I shall think twice before I plan anything similar again.

It's not just that I've got used to a quiet Christmas for two in the Potteries, usually with at least an attempt at snow if not a decent covering of the real thing for us to walk through between dinner and dessert (except last year, when we were on the narrowboat - and that was a brilliant Christmas with a difference!).  It's all the anxiety of how the house/garden/greenhouse/boat will cope with the winter weather while we're away for a week or more.  Previously, the risk has been of a 'Big Freeze' - indeed I seem to recall the usual hysterical headlines in the doom-and-gloom tabloids warning of just that a few months ago (before the weather turned unusually mild, and they got on with hating Romanians and Bulgarians), but this year it was more a case of hoping we still had a roof when we got home.

We shouldn't have worried - in fact, by a quirky twist of fate we managed to travel into the areas most under attack from the Yuletide weather - the South Coast and Home Counties, which got thoroughly battered by gales and drenched with rain a couple of days before Christmas, and not for the first time this month - while Staffordshire took considerably less of a pounding.  But I still think in future we'll plan for shorter visits away from the peak holiday times and aim to miss both the seasonal rush and any foul weather.

Under the circumstances, walking about under trees might seem an ill-advised way to spend some of our free time, but our first walk in the woods came about as a result of crossed wires with my Dad, who had made a mental note of our planned visit for lunch with him and step-mum Pat on 23rd December, despite me arranging it for the 22nd.  Sadly, this left us less time to catch up with them as that storm was building and we needed to get to our hosts in rural West Sussex while the roads were still passable (in fact the A29 through Pulborough was closed quite soon after we traversed it, after not so much driving as tacking along the M27), but gave us an unexpected free day with some very dear friends (and innocent growers of narcotics - see 'Pot Luck' from August 2012).

Sunday 22nd December was bright, though with a chilly wind, and a perfect day for a walk, so we all wandered around the Hillier Arboretum at Braishfield, near Romsey in Hampshire.  Despite having lived quite nearby before moving north, I hadn't visited since childhood and found it quite an inspiration.  Home to a collection of trees and shrubs from all over the world, it also has an area of Himalayan-themed planting and a small, tasteful memorial to the Gurkha regiments and a glorious Winter Garden established long before they got to be trendy.  The best of the photos are on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30634865@N03/sets/72157639205560426/

By contrast, my Boxing Day woodland walk was a solo expedition through, depending on your point of view, a woefully mis-managed patch of forestry or a romantic sylvan glade.  After the rain of previous days it was certainly squelchy underfoot but most of the fallen trees seemed to have been down for years, with one spectacular exception.

With indistinct paths disappearing into thickets or over sudden combes, had it not been a sunny morning I might have felt uncomfortable without an elven sword in case of giant spiders (plus the Hobbit to wield it), but the Hobbit was safely indoors waiting for his baby grandson to visit again, and I just had my trusty, battered Nikon D40 (New Years Resolution check - buy new lens for camera!).  Consequently, there is again a set on Flickr if you would like to see more, including some shots of the older fallen trees which look more like the skeletons of prehistoric animals (or dragons?).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30634865@N03/sets/72157639209873765/

I'm effectively grounded for the next couple of days while I try to shift the Christmas cold picked up somewhere on our travels (another good reason to go into quarantine next year, rather than socialising - bah humbug!) but if it isn't too windy I'll prune the apple trees and give them a quick blast of Bordeaux Mixture (contains no alcohol) and I have some writing projects to get on with too, which should keep me off the mince pies for a little while.  Actually, I don't think we've got any mince pies, though we did buy next years Christmas pudding in the sales at Sainsburys yesterday!

And a very Happy New Year to you all!