Frozen

Late(ish) blip today. I was hoping to do a different blip but as I forgot to buy a necessary piece of staging, and we've not been into the attic to find the ones I know we have somewhere, and it's now FAR too cold outside to go faffing around with tealights and long exposures.... you've got this one instead. No pictures of Ben today. Just haven't got round to taking any.... But this little flower caught my eye. Poor little thing, escaped death by icicle, only to be frozen solid encased in ice itself. It's still frozen now. That little patch of ground only got a couple of minutes' dappled sunshine today, during which I think I just managed to catch it glistening. The icicles hanging off the palm tree got a few more minutes' sunshine (which I nearly missed as I was putting Ben to bed for a nap) but they too remain in place.

It's been quite cold today. It's been about -6 or -7 which is still the rubbish temperature - it's cold enough to be COLD but not cold enough to freeze all the water vapour in the air. So it's a damp cold and seeps into your bones. I don't mind colder temperatures. We had a few months of it being below -10 or -11 when we lived in Finland, that hurt your skin but provided you were wrapped up properly and kept moving you were fine. The snow is still there but the sky was blue and the sun shone and the snow on the roofs turned to ice and started dripping and oh my word the icicles! One shop had a whole lethal-looking curtain of icicles hanging all the way across the shop front. We made it to the Post Office and back without falling over* and even managed to nip into a shop for dishwasher salt to throw on the ice outside our house to try and slush it up a bit and make it safer to walk on. It's worked!**

We wrapped up really warm. Ben watches me put my hat and gloves and scarf on, and has decided that he too would like all these things so he has a woolly hat and his jacket hood and a scarf on his head, gloves, and then is fully clothed in the wrap with a babywearing cover over the top to protect his legs. And then my coat over the top of us which still just reaches around his legs at least so they get even more protection. It's cold enough now to not be sweating by the time we get home.

But my brother's Christmas parcels have been posted off to Bergen, Norway; hopefully they will clear customs and arrive at their new apartment in time for Christmas this year!

Finally - a few links. I don't normally put links like this in. But these, I like these. On the Finnish theme - a comedian we discovered last night (was it last night? I'm rubbish with keeping track of days) Danny Bhoy writes a blog, it's a very rambling, very funny, very perceptive blog. And this latest entry was from Finland. He's funny. I like him. I think we're going to try and get tickets for when he comes to Brighton next June.
And lastly, this. It's a lullaby. It's sung in Finnish. It's so beautiful. I tried singing with her, but trying to sing the English transcreation (like translation, but re-writing it in English rather than simply translating it) made me cry; so I tried the Finnish version, but Ben kept looking at me and that made me cry too. There's something really quite beautiful about the sung Finnish language.

Bedtime. I am needed.

***end***


* I have realised I'm actually very good at NOT falling over. My balance isn't great, but I rarely actually fall over - I think I'm a weeble in disguise.
** We know this because we went out for a cheeky fish and chip supper and came home to find the pavement had actually started turning slushy. Hurrah!