My mind is warming up at the same slow rate as the bathroom, less concerned with writing than with steeling itself for the discomfort from frozen hands that will surely come with the imminent and essential cutting of fire wood. I am becoming a master of procrastination, particularly if it involves me and hard labour in the cold. This is a seasonal malaise aggravated by increasing age. Wine might improve with age but tolerance doesn’t and I can’t tolerate cold hands. On reflection it is not my hands per se that suffer from the cold, but the very tips of the two longest fingers of each hand. As the ambient temperature around my finger tips drops. the blood seems to drain from them. Their sensitivity is such that, even allowing for my antipathy to this particular form of decoration, it might be worth tattooing a thermometric scale on each of the offending digits so that I could associate an exact temperature to each level of pain. I’ve just started to have very unfortunate thoughts concerning the concept of a finger being a thermometer so I’m covering my conceptual ears and going “la, la, la, la……” whilst thinking of something delicious like raspberries and honey….oh, I’m not sure about this either. Time for a cold shower.
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Food, Photography & France 
What a beautiful picture !! bravo !
Glad you liked it. Many thanks:)
Lovely raspberry.
🙂
Roger, a spectacular photo. Thank you for brightening my day, and I might say that it needed brightening. Now all I need it to overcome the hunger induced by that raspberry. – James
My day has just been marred by the chain saw packing up. Glad you like the picture, James. By the way, the “round chair” is featuring quite a bit in “Borgen”.
Stunning!
I don’t suppose you get many Boy Scouts coming round asking to do bob a job in rural France 😦
I can’t get to the bottom of that suggestion – I think I just have:)
Incredible photo.
Mind you keep your fingers out of the cold shower then. I like chopping wood in the cold, and would happily help with yours (in exchange for tips on photography and cooking) if closer.
The problem was solved by the chain saw giving up the ghost:)
Beautiful!
Thanks, Greg.
That’s a great image. I’m not down with cold weather and outdoor labor myself. I’ll save that for someone else.
Oh dear, you do get yourself into some delicious literary knots! I was thinking about your images this morning as i looked (through the window) out across the wretched landscape and tried to come up with an image worth sharing on my pages tomorrow. Here is what i have decided, like you it is OK to only have one image as long as it is as glorious as this one(above) . Two .. I should trouble a little less with technical perfection (obviously never achieved by me) and more with content. What you do is you produce an image that Speaks. It has content. A story. And how the hell did you keep that spoon still enough for that shot?.. Did you put it in a vice?.. Ok off you go. I am sure your chainsaw will work again now that it has cooled off and your trigger finger has warmed up. c
I think that’s good thinking. Robert Frank (one the great American photographers)would say that taking the photograph is the easy bit – the difficult bit is editing/choosing the image.
Hmm, in other words you’re feeling bloody like Celi was yesterday! I wonder how many sleeps before smiles again creep into your expressiveness . . . . 🙂 !
Bloodiness hangs out with the greyness. January and February are not the best months of the year:)
Now that is a photo that reminds me of the warm months ahead. My husband suffers with cold fingers this time of the year as well. I think we are all looking forward to warm days with berries picked fresh off the bushes.
You are so right,Karen.
That is one gorgeous raspberry!
Wondering if you experienced frostbite on those digits in the past.
I haven’t had frostbite, to my knowledge, on my fingers. It’s only started over the last 5 or 6 years, so I’m guessing it’s a circulation thing. I’m getting to be temperamental at starting, like an old car:)
Really, Roger. That picture. Slurrrrrp.
I too suffer from cold fingers and toes. And brain, sometimes. What an interesting metaphor for creativity. We have to suffer through the not-so-great bits to find the pieces of the divine. Or the warmth. Or the perfect shot.
I wish there was a simpler way.
Chopping wood in the winter cannot be fun, no matter how you describe it, so I sympathize with you 🙂
Many thanks, Tandy. It’s worth it when the fire is blazing in the hearth:)
Here’s to improved circulation. Red wine or some whiskey might help. Raspberry heaven in that image..
I’m working on the red wine cure:)
Cold has the same effect on me, Roger, only not just hands: I go into stasis. Housework doesn’t get done. I just want to sit in a duvet and watch old black and white films end to end.
I tend to cook, as the heat created by the cooking processes warms the kitchen, my hands and my spirits:)
Wonderful picture, raspberry is one of my favorites fruits, have a great week!
Many thanks. I’ve just been in London where fresh raspberries seem to be in season all year:)
Right now I would love to have some of them:)