So, at last, the year has begun....

 I love winter and the start of a new year. I've stopped making unreasonable resolutions for myself and pragmatically just take it a day at a time. I long for cold frosty mornings with a sharp nip in the air instead of this interminable dreary wet and windy weather. I feel for the many people who have had too much rain inflicted on them during recent weeks and long for respite for them and for us.

I become even more obsessed with trees now. I love their silhouettes and will make special detours when I'm out and about to see my favourites before they change in the Spring. My most favourite tree of all is the large ash tree at the house end of my garden and I've lost count of how many photographs I've taken of it over the years. I stand there most afternoons when it's not raining and watch the starlings fly over. There seem to be  thousands of birds and you can almost time your watch by them as they choose the same time to fly past every day.  A winter treat that never palls. Even better when  smaller groups appear during the day and decide our ash tree makes a great stopping off point. It can get pretty noisy but I love it all.

 On the few dry days we've had since the New Year we've managed to get out and about walking. The beach walks have been great but this week we had two consecutive dryish days with some intermittent sunshine so we managed to get down to our local woodland for a couple of really long walks. Recent winds have brought down trees and some pathways were blocked. At one point we had to limbo under fallen trees to keep going. We were there on our own on Friday and the only person we met was the ranger from National Resources Wales who was surveying the woods to establish what rain damage there was to remedy. The woods can be packed when there are lots of visitors and tourists around so to be there on our own was magical.

 I couldn't resist the skyline but became entranced by the reflections of the trees in the numerous puddles. This one below was small but the water was so clear and the reflection quite beautiful. It's a shame I can be seen leaning over it with my camera but the next one shows that all of a sudden it started to rain and the reflections disappeared, as did we, trying to get a bit of shelter!

Whilst we got soaked by yet more rain it was wonderful to have the freedom to just be outdoors. Since then the weather has returned to persistent showers and winds. It reminds me of a poem I found only recently by  Scottish poet, Norman Bissell, who I need to find out more about as he seems to say what I think. His words are a perfect fit for how this year has started :

Sometimes here

it's hard to tell

the sound of the wind

from the sound of the waves.

Or the sound of the waves

from the sound of the rain.

Or the sound of the wind,

and the waves and the rain

from the sound of my breath.