The Swallows Are Returning!

January is always a hard month. It shouldn't be. Really, I love clouds and rain and a wee bit of a blow in the sky. But somehow it still manages to get me crawling into a gloomy place. Not for long though! Winter in this part of the world is short. Already the swallows are returning and the days feel a bit longer and the sun is up a bit higher.

The hillside is covered in yellow flowers. Oxalis, which is a bit of a pest. A non-native invasive species. But the bees love it. We have been strimming it a bit as it smothers the new grass which is also coming up. All the fields around us are green and velvety. The rosemary is in flower and the bees love that, too.

My camera is still out of order and I still don't know how to put photos from the smart phone to the computer so you will have to imagine or perhaps I can dig out some from last year!

The building project is going very slowly. We had a volunteer who helped me build up the last exterior wall and put in the window in the bathroom. What a difference it is to have someone else to do half the work. We were speeding along, despite the wet weather. (We could work indoors.)

Ok, there must be a reason for no photos this time. I couldn't even put in an old one...

But imagine, I have been painting the doors and windows of the studio a lovely pale green and am thinking of plastering or lime washing the walls a good colour to go with it.  And I have made a work surface and a shelf next to the gas cooker outside, using stones and cob. I used some sand since I have some nearby. It is the first time I have added sand to a cob mix! It feels different. goes very hard.

The shack, our house, smells very strongly of mushrooms as I am trying to dry some field mushrooms we found.

A new painting is in my head. I hope to get it out in the next month.