I have a home made lasagne cooking in the oven, so thought I’d do my first post of 2026 while I wait! I’ve been having trouble with bots crawling my website over the holidays, so there is a temporary browser check in place which means my site might take a few seconds extra to load – bear with me.

The weather has turned a bit nippy here in the Lake District, with a dusting of fresh snow on the fells and the promise of a proper snowfall this coming week, but it’s been dry and fine and perfect for getting out and blowing the over-indulgent cobwebs of Christmas away. Had a lovely walk up at Ullswater yesterday under the watchful eye of a stunning daytime moon, even though the breeze was enough to rip your skin off so we were glad to get home for a steaming hot chocolate afterwards ☕

Because of the cold temperatures and clear skies the sunsets seen through my windows have been gorgeous and the birds have been flocking to my feeders which I’ve kept well stocked. The Blue Tits who nested in my old water pump in the summer are back, I think to roost in there out of the cold and who can blame them (apologies for the poor photo – it was snapped through my kitchen window!).

Today I went for a meander to my favourite river, where I spotted Swans, a Little Egret and a Kestrel (all too far away for a photo sadly), alongside a huge flock of Fieldfares feasting on winter berries (again a long distance away so not the best picture in the world). The little roads around where I live where mental, however, as the M6 is shut this weekend and next and everyone and his arctic were trying to use the back roads. There is supposed to be CCTV in operation and locals have all been given permits to use but it doesn’t seem to be deterring anyone.

Creative images are temporarily on pause because my soon-to-be studio room is currently emptied and waiting to be plastered, which won’t be finished until the end of January. In the meantime I’m concentrating on the writing challenge I’ve set myself and sorting out my site on the Saatchi Art Gallery which has been paused for some time while I’ve been doing the house renovations. I’ve had to find a new commercial printer for the limited edition museum quality prints I sell via the Gallery as my old one has retired, but fingers crossed I’m now all set up to begin selling my art again 😊

Right, dinner is ready so I shall sign off. It looks good, even if I say so myself 😉. Wrap up this week if you’re out and about, it might be a bit Baltic.