So where's the snow?

Muddling through life from Austria to Wales; God, life and a small black dog

Category Archives: weather


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Blackberries

After the glut of last year, I wondered if we’d get any this year. The wine I made was fantastic, so I’ve kept some back to treasure.

This cold June seems to have held a lot of things back, and there have been no flowers as early after last year. I think the wet March brought them on.

I’ve been watching the bushes and at last there are flowers. One variety seems to have much larger flowers and stalks compared to last year.

I’m hoping they’ll bring fruit. Other bushes are just showing smaller lanky flowers.

I know we’re all going on about climate, but I wonder what this cool is having on the bugs which the birds need to feed their babies on. My bird feeders are really busy.

I’m sure all this is to do with the slip stream, we had this cool spell in May last year. I’ve seen it’s slipping, but we quite often got a cool spell in Austria.

Can’t see myself picking for wine this August, so will the blackberries be so full of sugar. Oh the joys of wine making.

Then I saw this hedge!


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To write or not to write?

Swingle is going to be famous next  month, but that’s top secret!

I vowed that I would take a break from writing until the new year, but a new book is coming to birth, but I am fighting starting to write it until after the summer and I’m not going to rush this one, it’s going to be deeper, a real mainstream, Christian novel, AND NO HORSES… well maybe a couple.Life here in Wales is fab. We’ve just had a wonderful, hot June, the garden is looking great, just wish my geraniums would flower, I’ll start them later next year. The pond is still leaking but Dave and I have talked ourselves out of the rebuild yet again. I’ve got Elderflower wine bubbling away, and it looks like there will be more blackberries than last year, but the Elderberries still don’t look so good. We’ve had visits from family which have been such fun and are making new friends around us.

Our lovely fellowship is changing and growing in all sorts of ways as God begins moving in Mountain Ash. I still have no idea what the future will hold and what it’ll look like, he’s keeping that under wraps. We had our first evening service last week and it was a deeply relaxed spiritual, joyous time, and I came home full of peace and eagerness for the path forward.

Yet, this week for the first time I actually wanted to go back to Austria. It was a conversation at the Riding for the Disabled group, where we were having a coffee chat. This wokeness is out of hand, and I was so upset when I heard of how teaching riding has changed since I left the UK, and how the horse world is under pressure from people ignorant of working with and loving horses. I wanted to run back to Austria where I could remain ignorant of this, bury my head. But that’s not God’s plan and here I stay and I’ll have to learn to deal with it.


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Walking

God is good! We’ve been enjoying a week of wonderfully sunny weather and have made the most of it by heading up into the hills. The Mountain Ash valley does a bit of everything and we even went a bit further towards Maerdy, the other side of Aberdare. Swingle has had a ball, although there aren’t many streams around as it has been so dry, she’s found plenty of mud to bog snorkel in and cool down!

Hills, rocks, woods – lovely deciduous ones, there are so many hawthorn trees going nuts this year. Reservoirs, streams, old mine workings, very rocky paths, views of the beacons. Actually, I think this area is as good if not better!

A week off from church life too, but back with our kids club, with a seven week run until the summer holidays. We’ve been having up to 24 kids in and its been a fabulous chaos. Next week we have family visiting, then its re-building out pond which is leaking. The tadpoles are leaving as little black frogs. Funny, I never thought I’d hear myself saying we could do with a bit of rain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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A little March snow


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Graupel Schauer

After about ten days of almost summery weather, the cold came to Cfenpennar. Showers of snow and those tiny little pellets.

I spent all afternoon trying to remember the Austrian name. Had to ask on FB in the end. But isn’t that a name that really sums up this sort of April weather? Back to cold for the next few days, my poor sweet peas are shivering under a fleece and all the other plants can’t wait to get out.


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Sunlight

The day after the big snow, I had to travel to Salzburg for a library conference. It was the most amazing day and I was glad to escape the snow and the powercuts. Usual Austrian efficiency had the main roads and motorway free of snow.

Once at the centre, we had discussions and seminars. In one room, I was sat near the window. Outside was a mature garden in what must have been the grounds of the house. It just caught the afternoon sun as it began to set, so I took a few photos. The colours were beautiful as they caught the autumn of the trees.

I sat and watched the light change-and enjoying the discussion. Then it was gone. Sadly, I turned back. Then after a while, the sun returned for a brief few minutes, like an extra blessing.

The whole day was like a reprieve from the snow and pressure of the weather at home and I rejoiced in it. Writing this now, I wonder if it was a foreshadowing of what was to come in the next few days; enjoy this and treasure this now.

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