Shopping and Flowers

Or shopping for flowers?

I took a trip to town yesterday.
I needed to return my library books.
And I came back with these.
We needed a bit of colour.

It was a dull day,
and even a bit rainy,

This is a display outside one of the florists shops.
The florists are always worth a look inside.



We find the shops tend open later here.


In the UK they are often open at 8.a.m. or 9.a.m.


That is if they're not open 24 hours!

It is possible to go into town and do a circular route round the lake.

Very pretty.

I'll try and capture this view on a sunny day!

Well I've found a sunny place for these two.

Is this one okay here?

Would You Like Some Sun \With Your Snow?

It was lovely to have some sun with the snow today.

So we took advantage of it and walked down to the lake.

I got the dogs to pose with Mike.

Not always easy as they are often looking down, or one is behind the other.

But today they could hear voices somewhere and it kept their attention

making for a much better photo.

Until Jewel decided she'd had enough.

Anyone who knows Jewel, knows that she will lie down whenever we stand for more than a minute.

It was one of the things we noticed about her whenever we took her for a walk from the kennels where she was waiting for her 'forever home'.

Even the snow doesn't stop her.

Notice the bright blue sky?

Chasing the Sun

I wanted to go to the village to get some photos whilst the sun was out.

So I left the packing away of Christmas decorations until I'd caught the sun, (some things don't wait, much as I'd like them to).






It's one of two villages close to us. We usually bring our visitors for a walk along the lakeside. It's so lovely, whatever the weather.

We were stood on the lake here at midnight New Year's Eve, waiting for

midnight,

and the fireworks.

It was a first for us,

to see the dawn of the New Year here on the lake.

The approach to the lake was quite spectacular and unexpected.

Large outdoor candles lined either side of the road leading into the village.

People carried flaming torches as they walked to the lake and there was a primitive air about the proceedings as we joined them in our walk onto the lake.

The church bells ringing at midnight gave the signal for the fireworks to begin.

The bangs of the fireworks competed in sound with the repeated pops of the bottles being opened in celebration of the New Year.

The fireworks were much like other displays that I have seen.

Perhaps shorter than most.

But it was the place,

standing on the lake,

with candles all around,

foreign voices,

new friends,

that gave it a sense of occasion.

This lake is used a lot for recreational purposes once it is frozen. There were not many people out on it today despite the sunshine. Maybe because it was -20 degrees centigrade. It was nearly too cold for me to take photos! My fingers were freezing, even as I tried to take the photos with my mitts on!

The surrounding countryside was just as lovely.

But what I want to know is, how come when all the Christmas decorations have been stored away for another year, I always find one that has been overlooked?

Walk Anyone?

A sleety kinda day.

After the big thaw yesterday, we were surprised when we got up to find it was snowing! I guess the weather can be just as unpredictable here as in the UK. It didn't last long though and was followed by sleet and general greyness. However we went for our usual walk to collect the post. I took a photo of the lake which appears to be thawing.




Then the half mile walk back up our track