Winter blossom

Now that all of us in the northern hemisphere find ourselves in winter, I'd like to introduce to all and sundry the Solstice Glower, a plant we can find here only in this cold season. The strange colour surrounding it in fact emanates from its roots and only lasts a few seconds. The light is alleged to be caused by an extremely rare species of glowworm which, although sexually mature, remains all its life in a larva stage and copulates only on the first day of winter in the roots of this plant. The insects' sexual activity stimulates the plant to grow clusters of already fertilized blossom opening into the cold winter air which is essential for the development of seed; all this, as already mentioned, in a matter of seconds. Afterwards, the Solstice Glower assumes a form identical to the surrounding flora and can not be discerned from the rest of the dead weeds.

Winter

It starts officially tomorrow at about 6 a.m. GMT although the weather we've been having lately is absolutely wintry except for the lack of snow in the central and western parts of the country.

By the way, and I think I've said it before, I HATE winter, literally or metaphorically.

Breathing

Our bodies are made so that most of the time we aren't even aware of all the basic functions they perform. We take them for granted (which, essentially, they are) until one (or more) of those functions start giving us trouble.

We can live without food for many days, without water for a few days (not that I want to try), but try living more than a few minutes without breathing. Good thing we do it automatically, yes?

And then all of the sudden this automatic usually effortless activity becomes difficult. You feel exhausted and slightly feverish and you want to get some sleep. But, whichever way you turn, something is blocking your respiratory channels. Where does all that mucus come from? You turn around in bed trying to find a reasonably comfortable position, but in vain. Oh well... here goes a good night's sleep. And you feel more tired in the morning than you did last night. And you still can't breathe. And there are piles of used Kleenex all over the place. And you drink gallons of tea and overdose yourself with vitamin C and paracetamol and whatever you can think of and wonder whether you'll ever recover from this ordeal.

Damn that cold!

Enough!

I've had it! I'm calling in sick tomorrow. Can't work like this anymore (cough, cough, snuffle)...
Besides, it was -7 C this morning and tomorrow it may get even colder.

Defrosting

The office has warmed up enough to make work bearable if not pleasant, thank you for asking. Should be back to normal by tomorrow. I only wish I was back to normal... but I don't think a sore throat and snotty nose will disappear overnight. In a few days, hopefully but... damn, I hate feeling under the weather.

Cold

It is commonly known that I strongly dislike cold. Oh, I don't mind so much if I can dress up warm and move around freely knowing than before long I'll be back in a warm shelter of home sipping tea and munching biscuits. But the unexpected cold, the kind you can't prepare for in advance, that's the one that gets at me.

This weekend was probably the coldest in the whole year. Sub- or around zero temperatures all the time. And there was the wind - the bitter northerly gusting with up to 50 miles per hour, cutting to the bone. Well, I hate cold but I hate wind combined with cold even more and there's a good reason for that - but that's another story.

So, imagine my surprise and exasperation when I entered the office this morning and a blast of cold air hit me in the face. Some idiot had left a window open on Friday and the office was bloody freezing! Of course we set what few radiators there are to maximum but hat didn't help much - the place still felt like a fucking freezer, even after several hours. But there was work to do and how we managed through the day is beyond me. I had to flush hot water over my numb fingers every half-hour or so if I wanted to type at all. Phew!

I dread the idea of having to come back to that cold place that is my office tomorrow and I can already feel scratching in my throat. But I have work to do so what else can I do? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Mystery of a wine glass

A year ago I posted on my former blog the following picture and text:-




boxing day. the weather is mild, overcast, but clouds are gradually breaking. i turn into the forest and slightly uphill, heading towards one of my favourite spots. i pass a few fungi and a small heap of rabbit droppings along the way. by the edge of the forest some daisies still turn their white faces towards where the sun is supposed to be. frost has spared them so far. i hear a buzzard calling but don't see the bird.

a faint shaft of sunlight breaks through the clouds and a reflection catches my eye. there, stuck in the fork of a tree, a glass! and just below, another one. i explore further. an empty bottle of unidentified liquor, a spent firework. there must have been a party last night.



I passed the clearing at the edge of which I had first spotted these glasses a few times this year. The lower glass disappeared from the tree soon after my first spotting but the upper glass remained in the same spot where I had first seen it throughout the year. Fascinating, isn't it! So, yesterday I thought I'd take another photo of said glass as evidence. I wonder if anyone else is aware of its existence and how much longer it can remain there untouched. Time will tell, I reckon.