First of all, let me show you what it looks like these days when I leave the city and go up to the summer house – and the garden…
This is what it looks like when I walk from the bus stop – end of the line – towards the summer house. The road has the forest to one side and some natural plots to the other, so it gives an all-together feeling of being away from the city. You do see houses on the left, but very few – and they are sheltered by trees and hedgerows.
To the right the forest spreads out; a mix of mainly oak and beech with pines and larks in-between. And lots of honey suckle, but you don’t really notice these in winter…
In the garden, the first thing that you notice is that there are several spots where the snow has been melted away, even though it has been freezing consistently for weeks. This is where the deer have lain down to sleep, thus melting away the snow on the lawn. I find this very charming, and today two of these spots were clearly fresh – and there was a third one (top left of the picture) that was perhaps from last night or the night before.
Actually, the snow makes it pretty easy to see how frequented our garden is by wildlife. Most of these tracks are by deer, but a few of them seem to come from smaller animals with paws rather than hoofs. Perhaps a fox? And of course lots of birds, ranging from the size that HAS to be crows to the smaller ones that might be tits or robins.
I have one robin that seems to like the covered terrace; while the great tits and the blue tits come in pairs – or flocks at times – there is only ever one robin at a time on the terrace, and I like to imagine it’s the same one. And now when there’s snow all around it seems – oddly enough – that the tits are less keen on the feeding balls, whereas the robin keeps coming. He/she doesn’t like the hanging balls, though, preferring instead to feed on the seeds that fall off when the tits are feeding, so I decided to leave a feed ball on the paving for him/her, and he/she really seems to enjoy this. (Please note how – apart from the tail and the beak – the bird seems to be as round as the feed ball…)
Also, just because people seem to like this garden feature / folly, here is a view of The Puddles… You can just make out the outlines of the third one at the back, but really they are all frozen over and covered in snow. I hope this means my water lilies will be safe beneath the blanket of snow, but you never know… After all, they are rather shallow, so I might have to start over in spring.
Anyway, back to what this entry was supposed to be about – which was not wildlife, but snow lanterns!
Strictly speaking, these aren’t snow lanterns, but when the snow is deep enough, why not just immerse lanterns in the snow?
Now, those among you of a nautical persuasion might argue that I placed the lanterns in the wrong order (red = port and green = starboard), but these pictures where taken from the entrance to the terrace, so clearly they will then be in the right order when you approach the harbour / house. And after all, nautical markers are normally placed so they make sense when you approach port, rather than when you are leaving it…
An even easier idea for special lights for the season…love your walk and the nature you see…beautiful
Snow is pretty forgiving, I find; any lights look great in snowy surroundings when the light is bounced off the glittering surfaces and turn the garden into a fairy tale.
And the nature around this place is amazing. Nothing too grand or spectacular, but pleasant and gentle and very much on a relateable scale.
I can see what an escape your summer house is, walking along the road as you do, I’m sure its a superb stress buster!
and what clever birds, and just loved the detail about the deer melting the snow.
That 10-minute walk from the bus is heaven! (I can also take a slightly longer route that takes me through the forest, but that’s a bit trickier in the snow.)
And this morning the tits have returned with a vengeance – and some wagtails, a few blackbirds and a single nuthatch. It’s like looking out into an aviary when I’m sitting in the sofa and the birds are fluttering around just outside the windows.
I thought I didn’t miss snow (it rarely snows here), but looking at your photos I think I do, or at least at this time of year. Snow in the countryside is so beautiful and peaceful. I’m surprised, though, that you have a robin in your yard. Wouldn’t he have moved on to warmer climates?
Most robins will go South in winter, but a few stick around, especially if there is enough food around for them. The Danish climate is fairly mild – I know the pictures don’t look like that – so we do get a lot of our local birds migrating South, but also quite a few winter guests from further North in Scandinavia, in Sweden and Norway, so my robin might be a local bird or it might be a bird from further up North that is overwintering in Denmark. And welcome he/she is, regardless!
The snow looks set to vanish over the weekend, so I enjoy it while it lasts – and hope it will return in time for Christmas. After all, who doesn’t like a white Christmas?
Nice Post. I enjoyed my winter wonderland stroll to your country house, I too enjoy trying to determine who those footy prints belong to.
We are so lucky to be so close to the forest – and of course the fjord as well, though I forgot to take my phone with me when I went down there to see the beginning ice around the shore line. At a time when there’s not much to see in the garden, there’s DEFINITELY lots to see in the surrounding nature.
(And I love the deer’s sleeping spots marked out on the white lawn; it somehow feels like a validation that the deer would choose MY garden for an over-night stay… I think it’s because we have a dense hedge towards the North-East, which is where the wind has been blowing from, so they will have been sheltered from the wind, and the overhanging pines will have sheltered them from falling snow.)
The deer obviously must feel secure if they will lie down to sleep in such a realtively open place. I wonder what they make of the snow lanterns??
They’ve only spent the night when i haven’t been there, so I probably scare them away with my snow lanterns and “lights on after 5pm” habits… But actually they prefer a fairly sheltered place by the entrance to the garden; there is just two meters between a hedge with mature pines above it and the large yew towards the garden-proper. I can see why this is a comfy spot for them.
It’s all so pretty, but I particularly love the story of the deer sleeping.
I do love the deer, even when they run through the peonies… They’re such a charming addition to the garden, and I feel childishly excited every time I seem them or their traces.
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