ok, who ordered the snow?

talk about a bolt from the blue - there i was, having my pre-nights afternoon nap, when a cat put a very cold paw on me. i reached out to give a welcoming stroke and thought ' hello, that feels a bit solid for rain drops'. looking outside confirmed what william was telling me - lots of the white stuff. it was a rather slow and slippery drive into work. of course, none of our poll tax had been converted into grit for the roads, so there were a lot of 'caught out' drivers doing exciting things in the middle of the back roads.

on monday, the chickens thought the best thing to do was to stay in bed apart from forays to the feeders - sensible things. i too slept after my night and woke to find it was all over.......... just rain. the cats have redecorated every flat surface with footprints (my main bug-bear when it comes to cats) so i am due to perform a massive re-polishing this afternoon. i do not know why i stress so much about it coz polishing is such a thankless task - but it is therapeutic after nights and i do like to see it all looking clean when the lamps go on in the evening.

the shoot up the back of me released their pheasants a while back and they have discovered that my garden is a free for all when it comes to food - they do every year!. as a consequence i am treated to a lawn full of birds every day. this year there are some amazing colours. some of the pheasants are totally blue/black with no neck rings - i will try and photograph one the next time the sun shines - they are very exotic-looking and the lady birds seem to find them strangely attractive! one year we had a selection of pure white poults, they were gorgeous. someone told me that it is considered unlucky to shoot a white pheasant so i was hoping they would survive and breed more of the same - but i've not seen another since that year. perhaps it was a genetic throwback that did not survive further breeding - either that or the fox was not so particular or superstitious.