Lemon Tree Very Pretty...

Not all winter scenes are snowy and cold.
Here is a photo of my very own lemon tree in California.
It is so cool to pluck a very fresh lemon to go with grilled salmon.
A fresh lemon is like no other.

I wonder what type of collage I can conjure with this as the image?

January

January in the part of England where I live is usually mild and wet except for the last three years when they got progressivly colder. Till 2012 so far this winter has been so mild with much rain there has been no frost in the garden at all yet and I have Camellias out the one at the bottom of the garden in the photo usually blooms in April! The photo of the snow through the garden gate was taken in January 2011.

January: New Projects



Family working to remove the fake rocks!

January, to me, is the start of new projects.....

January

January in this part of the country rarely sees any snow. Instead we get an awful lot of rain with the occasional bright day when a walk by the sea or on the moors is a good idea.

I have a couple of 'constitutional' short walks that I do regularly in this area.  Luckily we are on the edge of town and these give satisfy my need for the sights and sounds of the countryside at this time of year.

This morning we had the fiercest hail storm I have seen in the six years we have lived here.  I grabbed my camera and pointed it out the window into the yard

then rushed to the other end of the house and took this shot of it on the shed roof.  I think there are some nice patterns here.

Unfortunately my shots through the glass roof of the conservatory did not really come out.

January in New Zealand

 

 

 

 

These photos were all taken today.

The first two were taken when we were out in our boat fishing this morning.

The second two are of two of my granddaughters jumping into our pool this afternoon.

January

January

This is from January 2011, it doesn't look this way at all this January. We had one snow storm but it was followed by rain and now there's no snow.

We don't get much snow in Georgia but for several years we have had an opportunity to play in the snow at Stone Mountain Park's Snow Mountain which provides artificial snow for winter activities. This is my grandson enjoying a slide ride.

January in Portland, Oregon

There was enough snow to make snowmen last night, but this morning only the melting snowmen remain.

January

big ice in Antarctica -- January 2011

January

Taken in the snows last year.

January

A snowy day on Mount Desert Island--beautiful

January - Winter Weather

January 2011
A nice fresh coat of snow.

January 2010
"The Great Ice Storm"

The street in front of my house during the "Great Ice Storm".
Who could go anywhere?

Melting ice after the "Great Ice Storm."

Ice continuing to melt.

By The Fire..

Life can be really hard sometimes...

January - Full Wolf Moon

What symbolises January?

Snowdrops – every time! As it happens, I photographed these yesterday. For me they signal the beginning of the end of winter, which is not my favourite season.
Of course, there may be days like this to come before Spring really arrives – cold clear days when the sun shines and I can enjoy the snow briefly before scurrying back inside.






And last January we had visitors playing in the back garden – my little camera struggled with the distance but it was magical to see them.

January - what represents this month for you?

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, we will be having a prompt this month about what says 'January' to you. Different parts of the world will have different answers. In the months to come, you can be thinking about something for that particular month.

You can just post a photo and let the image speak for itself. Or, you can tell a little story about why you chose a certain thing to stand for January. Please use the label January when you publish your post. We try to keep the labels list easy for people to search through, so we only have the label for the prompt and not people's names or other titles.

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So, to start off...
To me Blackbirds are January birds! Why? I hear you say.
Here is a photo from a couple winters ago. It is one of my friendly blackbirds enjoying a top up under the feeder. Actually this is the female blackbird which is a dark brown colour. The male is black with a bright yellow bill.
You can listen to some of their songs here. When they get going along with the Robins, it is magical!

I love blackbird song. They actually start singing very lovely songs towards the end of the old year and beginning of the new. When I visited here in January 1987, I didn't know who was singing, but loved the song. I called them "January Birds". It seemed to me that they did a great job of waking the sun up every morning. As I went back from that visit engaged and have come to make England my home, they are part of that magical time for me. It took me quite a few years to discover it was the blackbirds who were singing so well.

This year it has been warm enough to have the window open a bit at night. Wonderful to hear them singing their hearts out! and also as I am looking back just a bit more to that time 25 years ago, it is a lovely memory.

I was a bit ashamed to discover this was my only blackbird photo. I am going to try to get a photo of the blackbirds in my neighbourhood this January. If I can, I will edit this post and add the new photo.