Hearts And Flowers

Posted bynickletjogPosted inDiary

Friday 14 February 2025

Snowdrops and aconites

‘I want to thank you for the hearts and flowers’ seems a fitting sentiment for a Valentine’s Day Blog as another week of grey skies progresses. I have a limited number of pictures to share today, as highlights in the countryside around these parts take a little finding whilst one is wrapped up in several layers against the bitter winds and braced beneath the grey skies of the last few weeks. Nonetheless, along with some welcome exercise, beauty is certainly there to be found in the winter landscapes – and our group of hardy walkers has remained active throughout the season. Here follow just a few of my cold snaps.

Our group walk on Saturday 8 February took in the towpath of the Wendover Arm that branches from the Grand Union Canal, and where I have seen kingfishers on previous outings: here a longtime restoration project by volunteers aspires to link the Chiltern town to the arterial waterway between London and the East Midlands
From the canal we approached the Church of St Mary in Drayton Beauchamp village . . .
. . . built of ironstone and faced with flint, the church was extensively rebuilt in the 1400s, although the font dates from Norman times, around three centuries earlier
A host of golden aconites in this Buckinghamshire wintergarden . . .
. . . whilst at Marsworth Reservoir the muted colours were punctuated momentarily by mute swans: this cygnet, under parental surveillance, came to investigate our incursion upon its territory
A mossy shelter for chilly walkers in Ivinghoe

So wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day, and I hope to be back in a couple of weeks as our walking group takes to the Lakes, on a four-day rambling trip from the Cumbrian village of Elterwater. Let us pray that the trains run on time and for sun on the hills!

Winter walks in the city have the advantage of colour, vibrancy and coffee; Camden yesterday, where Rachel and I joined some friends for a stroll along sections of urban canal and amidst eclectic streetscenes

Well, it is about time that I took a Joan Armatrading song as my Blog title, and the first line of my Blog today derives from the lyrics of her composition ‘Hearts And Flowers’. The song comes from the doyenne songwriter’s 1990 twelfth studio album of which it is the title track, and on which she plays all of the instrumentation to support her soulful and expressive vocals. Armatrading’s work, now into its sixth decade, crosses a great many genres that include folk, rock, pop, blues, jazz and even classical, and is a long overdue inclusion on my playlist of LETJOG Blog song titles.

And is it my wishful thinking, or might there be just a hint of spring in the air?

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