Sunday, January 06, 2013

An introvert owl, air frost, cakes, Kindlingtown, Epiphany. (In which I shamelessly make a post almost entirely out of other people's photographs.)



After the last post, I felt this fellow expressed things well.  He is a grey owl in an animal park in the UK.  He was housed in this old brick building temporarily while his aviary was being built, but now he doesn't want to move from it.  He likes watching the other birds outside, but has no wish to join them, so he has been allowed to stay in his own little house. (Photo credit and more info in the link). 

He speaks to my soul, to wit, to woo.

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A bit before Christmas my lovely niece (she's a designer, that's her website, she's called Tom too, I chose the profile page to link to because there's a photo of her on it) woke up one morning to a remarkable air frost, and she got out early to catch these stunning photos, which I told her I would steal and put here, bwha-ha-ha.  So good when people send me gorgeous stuff because they know I'll love it. 











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Then, she and her mum, my lovely sister, sent me these cakes!  Well, not the real thing unfortunately, but some pictures of them.  They always make a wacky Christmas cake, I don't have any photos from previous years, but last year it was covered in fondant icing penguins, the year before that they made fat robins out of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and red fondant icing (only thing worth doing with FR chocs IMO, you don't want to eat the things that's for sure).  This year, they were going to be in more than one place for Christmas, so they chopped the cake into cubes and made four different ones.  The black and white one was inspired by Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. The coloured chequered one looks to me a bit like Elmer the Elephant.


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I went to get wood in the other day, and thought I ought to use up some of the smaller offcuts from the kindling bin. Then I thought perhaps they could become a townscape. I usually go out with Molly and find the fire lit on my return, as I did that day, but Tom hadn't had the heart to dismantle the resulting construction, and lit the fire with just two sticks and a pine cone.


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And finally may I wish a happy Feast of the Epiphany to you all - the decorations are put away for another year and I've just been out listening to stories, drinking mint tea and eating little cakes, walking around with a daft glove puppet which Princeling had made in a puppet-making workshop on one hand and the silver paper crown from his galette des rois in the other, and more or less passing myself off as a social animal.  


12 comments:

marja-leena said...

So many feasts for the eyes on this page! I must say I love the frosty ones the most. Thanks for the Epiphany wishes - the same to you!

Zhoen said...

I feel for the owl, enough moving, I'm stayin' right here.

Lovely frost photos. Must get the tree down, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow.

zephyr said...

Sweet Gandalf
i also identify
and i'm going to steal that photo

i adore your Kindlingtown

That frost!
Tom's photos!!
She is very talented
and what a dear countenance

Those cakes 0_0
WOW

this post feeds my soul
Thank you for the feast!

Anonymous said...

Oh I love the owl! And such beautiful frost photographs :)

Catalyst said...

That owl is terrific. (I love owls.) And Tom's frost and Tom's fire both look terrific. Tom (of the frost) ain't bad either!

hdmi cables said...

Beautiful photos. The owl on the window looks so amazed.

Pam said...

Happy Epiphany / New Year to the three of you also.

Those photos look beautiful but oh, so chilly. Argh.

And the cakes... put me to shame. These are serious decorators. Reminds me of the time architect daughter made the whole of Bethlehem (imagined version) out of marzipan on the top of ours. Alas, she's no longer here so our cake is less interesting nowadays.

Nimble said...

Looks like a good new year.
I'm so happy to have our xmas tree and decorations put away for next year. Clear the decks! Ready for action!

The Crow said...

Dear Lucy of the heartwarming posts:

Zephyr said it all for me.

I want an owl to come live in my barn. I would feed it whatever it wanted and build a small heated nest for it to winter over in.

This owl has a face that makes you fall in love with it.

Thank you.

Marly Youmans said...

Cakes and frost and Tinder Town and a sweet-faced owl: I had a good Epiphany, and some very good news this morning that makes it fine that the 12 Days are done! Good cheer and happy day afte Epiphany, Lucy--

jarvenpa said...

A delightful post, full of presents and presence. Thank you, and happy new year for you also.

Sheila said...

Oh, I love owls, and I love this picture! What an interesting story about him....I have felt somewhat like that, too, having been home sick for over a week, it has been a mixed blessing getting out again and into more social routines.

I LOVE your little wooden village. And I love that Tom wouldn't dismantle it.

Frost....amazing. Simply amazing what all water can become and do.

Happy New Year!