A song, a stroll and a sermon

Today’s guest picture comes from my Somerset correspondent, Venetia. She visited Marjorie Fish’s East Lambrook Manor garden where she found some very pretty aconites, and there was even a bee as a bonus. The weather gods kindly delivered us a slightly warmer, slightly less grey and somewhat less windy day today, perfect for winter cycling.

In the swing

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. His picture looks like a big pipe but is in fact a bridge over a main road. We woke to another generally sunny day here, and this left the feeders in the shadows after breakfast. There was a decidedly cool air as I walked up to town

All change

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Caroline. She was surprised to see this lone rose blooming so early in the year. Although they say the rest of the week is going to be as gloomy as forecast (except Thursday which is going to be fine but with a serious gale), today proved the pessimistic

Crossing boundaries

Today’s guest picture is another of Laura’s views from the icy shores of Lake Michigan. After the drop in temperatures last night, I was expecting an icy morning here today. It was an agreeable surprise to find that warm air from the south had blown in, and the thermometer stood at a very reasonable and

Testing the new gloves

Today’s guest picture is another much needed sunny scene from Muriwai Beach in NZ, courtesy of Stephen. It looks particularly lovely after another grey day here. It was a degree or two warmer here today, but just as grey. Indeed, the light was so poor that I didn’t waste a lot of time looking at

Getting my goat

With another grey day on hand here, I needed colour for my guest picture of the day, so I was happy to look in my files and find this portrait of Tony’s dog Milo enjoying the sunshine in East Wemyss not long ago. There was a sprinkling of snow of the tops of the hills

Even greyer

Today’s guest picture comes from Venetia, my Somerset correspondent. She had a hint of solstice sunshine in Glastonbury this morning. We didn’t even have a hint of sunshine here, as it was sub zero and grey when we got up, and it took until midday for the temperature to climb up to 0°C. A welcome

Another day, another stroll with Mrs Tootlepedal

Today’s guest pictures come from our son Tony. He won’t be short of company this Christmas. My morning was brightened by the sight of Mrs Tootlepedal’s birthday flowers on the kitchen table when I came downstairs. Later in the day, Mrs Tootlepedal sorted then into two smaller vases. We had another fine and frosty morning

A pedal and a tootle

Today’s guest picture is the third and last from Venetia’s recent walk. As well as the bridge and the lime kiln, she visited this attractive little harbour. Looking at the forecast a few days ago, it seemed that today would be the best day of the week for a pedal. As it turned out, yesterday

A false dawn

I needed something cheery for my guest picture on a very gloomy day, so I looked back for this picture from my Lancashire correspondent Paul, who was in the Lake District earlier in the year. When I got up, it looked as though we might have a cheerful day here after a -5°C night .