now that they have finished the apple harvest the orchards are alive with birds. they are eating the fruit that has been left on the ground or on the trees. the hedgerows too are being stripped of their berries. busy, busy, busy. bird table not being ignored either.

have just been up to check the chickens and have un-frozen their water. now i am slowly defrosting my fingers (i am typing very slowly). every year my fingers get worse - reynauds syndrome i think - the thawing out is so painful i could cry.... old age certainly doesn't come alone....and i'm not that old.

no eggs from the girls so i take it that it wasn't the cockerels that were stopping the girls from laying.

i have a mole mountain on the lawn - not a mole hill, it is enormous! i don't know how they can dig through the frozen ground so efficiently - but they do. i never had a bad mole problem when i had a dog. he used to sit by the first soil-movement and wait......then at some point known only to him, he would dive at the ground and dig....made a hell of a mess of the lawn but he was more successful than not. it kept him amused for hours.......... i do miss him-for many reasons.

have refreshed the bird table. it is interesting to note how many of the usually teritorial birds (like robins) are prepared to forgo the fighting for a good meal. i have just seen 3 robins feeding together and the blackbirds are like a black carpet. and the jays are back - haven't seen them for a few months. lovely flash of colours. the woodpecker family are also visiting now that the peanuts are bountiful. nuthatches, sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, chaffinches and some i'm not sure of - they are all about this morning.................. this is one of the reasons i could not live in the town, i do love watching the wildlife.