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Since I last updated we’ve had floods, frosts, autumn, Christmas, a new year and winter snow...



In November the Kennet and Avon Canal and the River Thames burst their banks here in Reading. My lunchtime walks were cut short. I worried about the people on the boats.



I enjoyed the beautiful autumn leaves. And I collected five sacks full of them to make into leaf mould for my allotment.



As usual, I took lots of photographs of dried flower stems. They are all different, even though it often feels like I just take the same pictures over and over again!



We had some lovely frosts in mid-December.



I made a festive wreath for our front door from willow and greenery which I collected in the local area. I plan to keep it and add more to it next year. It’ll be interesting to see how the leaves and flowers dry and change over time.



We’ve done a lot of walking lately, because Matt has hurt his hands and can’t ride a bike. We’ve been following routes from an old book “Rambling for Pleasure around Reading”, which I got from a charity shop. Whilst most of the footpaths are unchanged since the book was published in the early 90s, the surrounding landscape seems to have altered a fair bit - all too often the quaint isolated cottages mentioned in the text are now enveloped by housing estates. We explored this dark conifer forest on Ramble 7.



One of my new year’s resolutions is to doodle more. This has led to a fun new project with my friend Claire (the conservatrix and magpie) - a blog on tumblr called scribblescribes. Each of our entries is “inspired by the day” and contains lettering. So I’ve been doodling and scribbling and practicing my design skills. This is my entry from 17 Jan. As you can see. Hopefully.



On Friday afternoon the college where I work was closed due to snow. I couldn’t find anyone to have a snowball fight with so I took my camera and my cat outside in search of some pictures. Photographing a snowflake is one of those must-do things in life.

I'll try not to leave it so long before I update again!