Fair Maids of Frrreezzing Febrrruarry

Every time we drove past Brandon Lane, I was always on the look-out for snowdrops  or one of their country name ‘Fair Maids of February’. I saw them last year and wasn’t pleased when a few months back, this road was dug up.

What a relief when I spotted small carpets of these little winter gems with their delicate flowers dotted all over the woodland. They survived. The flowering of snowdrops is a good indicator that winter is coming to an end and spring is on its way. But, are snowdrops the last flowers of winter or the first flowers of spring? It doesn’t matter. They are just a sight to behold.

They are like a beacon in the deluge of snow that blanketed the West Midlands last week. Last Thursday was the worst. It led to chaos on Coventry roads causing gridlocks mostly from selfish drivers blocking entrances and resulting in long delays.

Normally we reached our casa at 6pm about 30 mins on the road. On Thursday, we arrived home at 9pm!!! Exhausted, tired, hungry and freezing. Babe got the brunt cos he left the casa at about 4.45pm. He was on the road for 4.15 hours. 5 cm of snow and everything just broke down.

I took Friday off to recover and enjoy the snow. I’m still crazy of this lovely white stuff :-). While Babe was still recovering in bed, I went for a walk trampling on fresh snow that fell overnight. I passed 2 young boys who were throwing snowballs at each other. As I walked past them, splat…a snowball landed on my back.

I turned around and these 2 young kids stood there looking at me. Moi, mad…nah. I bent down, scoop some snow and threw at one of them. In the end, we’d an impromptu snowball fight. It was f-u-n!!!

Later that afternoon, we went to get our new baby! We traded our Benzy for a Citroen C3 Pluriel Cote d’Azur. Both of us must be loco cos we’re buying a convertible in winter :-). We are now praying hard for a long Indian summer. Summer??? Spring still hasn’t sprung yet.

The weekend was spent with trips to Brandon Marsh. Babe shot these fantastic photographs of the Bittern (bottom page) and I’m hoping to see one again. But, nada, zilch. Guess he knows I’m coming. But we managed to see a Gold Crest feeding along the path to the Carlton Hide. This bird is soo tiny and it was a miracle that Babe’s sharp eyes spotted it.

On Sunday, it snowed again. I chatted with Claire and Kate while their partners went over  Babe. We ,ladies, must have made a lot of noise cos when they left, a twitcher told me off. Oops…I knew the rules of bird watching but sometimes you just can’t ignore your friends especially when we seldom meet.

On the way back, I spotted these flocks of Long-tailed tits. I always have a soft spot for these gorgeous birds. They were playing chase among the branches, darting in and out. A prelude to setting home together, I presumed.

CC came over in the evening to help me with the spring rolls. It was for JE’s retirement party next Tuesday. She’s allergic to onions so I’m making homemade vegetables spring rolls sans onions. CC’s helping me to roll about 40 pieces. I also made Chicken Biryani for dinner and we’d a wonderful time polishing it off.

Did you have pancakes for Shrove Tuesday? It was the last day before the start of Lent when Christians practice abstinence by giving up things they normally enjoy. Some of my colleagues are giving up eating chocolates, meat, cheese and drinking. Good luck guys.

I guess everyone’s flipping out by downing their favourite naughty foods. As usual, I cheated. We bought 2 packets of pancakes from Morrison. So how do you like your pancakes? Tradition call for pancakes to be thin and flat, sprinkled with sugar and/or a squeeze of lemon. Many drowned theirs with golden syrup. I liked mine smothered with blueberry sauce. Yummy…

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”

Henry Van Dyke(1852 – 1933)

 

I hoped and pray that you, too, had a great time.