the 'odds and ends' quilt pile continues to grow.

today my mood has lifted - i think because i can see some blue sky for the first time in days.

william is sitting on my desk with the muddiest paws i have seen in a long time. he is gainfully cleaning them and making a mess in doing so - spitting bits of mud onto the papers. he has been mole-hunting, i know that because i saw him with his head and front feet buried into the mole-mountain on the lawn. i tried to take a picture but he heard the window open and thought i wanted him to come in..................... i really didn't. the mole lives on..............

william is now sitting ON the phone - i hate it when he does this as he has been known to speed-dial numbers without any of us realising it........... at least i think it is a mistake......maybe william is smarter than i think.

this morning i find that i have spent nearly 2 hours visiting links - i started, as i do every morning, on the country smallholder's blog and kept following link after link. i have added several to my 'favourites' as i know i will revisit them frequently. i have been all over england as well as to canada and australia.....and all before 10am. there are some really beautiful blogs out there and some of the posted photographs are stunning. i have vowed that i will be more proactive with my camera and to this end i have it placed by my desk and ready for immediate use.

i go back onto nights tonight.............. i am sure that i am doing more than my fair share recently. but at least my requests for christmas have been agreed. i am working every day - and all over new year- and on days, not nights! for the last 6 years i have chosen nights at christmas and someone has died on xmas morning on 5 of the 6 years. somehow it is sadder than at any other time and that is totally illogical. maybe it's because the families are so distressed knowing that every christmas will evoke memories of the death. some people do find solace in believing that a death at xmas is a special death. this year will be as unique as the previous ones..no two deaths are ever the same.

it is market day in hereford on wednesdays -so i am not going into town until this afternoon. it will be quieter then and the parking easier. i should not have to go at all - but i managed to forget a vital something when i went on monday and i know that i will not be awake enough to drive to town whilst on nights and for the day after nights have finished. nights are a great way of saving money, i am too disorientated to bother going out! i just have to make sure that i have supplies of cat and chicken food - oh, and enough chocolate for the 4am low blood sugar moments.......

this photo is about the only bright thing about today. it has been foggy and drizzling all day. no sign of the sky. so this is a reminder of sunny days and colour in the garden.

good news on the egg front though - 4 today and 4 yesterday. i knew those cockerels were the trouble!

if i wash my kitchen floor one more time i will wear it away! cat's paws and wet weather do not go together in any way other than 'messy'.

any sensible person would limit it to once a day..............

not only are the snowdrops starting to emerge, so are the daffodils. there are loads of green shoots... it is too early but very uplifting to see them. i worry that they may get eaten by the moles that are invading the garden, destroying the lawn and making mountains in the veg beds. do moles eat bulbs? i know daffodil bulbs are poisonous to humans - but what about moles?

if they are poisonous to moles i will stuff a load down the tunnels in the hope that the moles take the hint.

alex 'facebooked' me this morning to say that his luggage has been found and has been returned to him...... i take back some of the rude things i was saying about emirate airlines. thank you emirates!

i have had a 'bonus' day today. i was offered a free, full body massage. i was just having my usual sunbed when the owner asked if i would like a massage - i said 'lovely, but i cannot justify the cost' and she said that i could have it for nothing coz she had a new girl start today and would like to see what i thought of her 'technique'.

i was stripped off and horizontal before she could change her mind. i then spent a glorious hour having a very good massage. and it was all the better for being unexpected and, of course, free.

as ever, a full body rub makes me feel sooooo laid back that i am ready for bed - and it is only 16.30. i shall have a hot bath, put the electric blanket on and go to bed and read or listen to the radio. what a fab day off..........

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.

it has been a busy morning already. i was woken at some god-unearthly hour by the crowing of 2 chickens who were sold to me as 'ladies'. they have been building up to this pre dawn chorus for a couple of days, so i knew that i was in for trouble.

yesterday evening i phoned my 'chicken lady' ( chicken mandy) and she agreed to have the boys back and credit me with 2 ladies at a later date. so at 6.30 i grabbed the torch and the boxes and forayed up to the henhouse in my nightie and coat. the residents were somewhat surprised at their early visitor - but were, as all chickens when it is dark, as docile and biddable as a bag of feathers. i secured the boys in boxes and stashed them in the greenhouse. the girls breathed a sigh of relief and settled back to a lie-in.

at 8 am i loaded the boys into the car and was off up the lanes to re-home them. they were gratefully received by colin - mandy's husband - who weighed them in his hand and mentioned a good dinner! i have to harden my heart to what their fate will be. this is why i shall never be a true smallholder - i cannot kill surplus to requirement stock.

the garden is quiet and not so colourful without the boys but the girls are more relaxed - being jumped from behind when you are having a spot of breakfast was making them nervous.....hardly surprisingly. i would like to think that the boys were the reason that the girls are not laying - too frightened to sit still for long enough - but it could be just the time of year. we'll soon see.

it is the most beautiful day again. bright sun, dry and a bit nippy.

i'm working a late today. hope we have admitted a few more patients otherwise we'll be falling over each other to get to the jobs. not that i wish admission on anyone... but.... the time goes too slowly if we are quiet.

i am doing well on the 'using up my fabric scraps' for patchwork. the pile of scraps is slowly decreasing and the stack of made up pieces is growing. once i get them backed i shall have a stock of potential gifts for those moments when you need a present quickly.

i don't 'do' christmas but i like to have something around 'just in case'.

i am already 'over' the christmas shoppers in town. can't park anywhere after 9.30 am, supermarkets are heaving with mad women with overflowing trolleys.... the usual question - why? for just one day.....

i feel i am such a kill-joy but i cannot get all reved up about such a consumer-fest.the tv is impossible to enjoy for all the sexy adverts for the perfume that will transform you into a sensual being ( i've tried, i've tried) and the other ads that will turn you into an overweight couch potato.....

only a month before the shortest day and then we are on the countdown to spring and summer. i noticed the snowdrops peeking their shoots up yesterday.... life begins again....

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.

having not heard from alex by 13.00 i gave his mobile a ring. what a relief to hear his voice. it was only a brief 'hi - r u ok' call. he will facebook me as soon as he gets home. sounds like he had a nightmare journey though. he mentioned someone dying on the plane, re-routing due to death and bad weather (4 times) AND they've lost his luggage! he missed his internal flight due to the delays and has had to hire a car to drive himself home from auckland (4 hour drive). he sounded very OTT - i bet he is 'wired'.

i'll get the full story shortly. main thing is that he is alive and ok - i doubt he feels 'well'. good job he is not due back at work for a few days, he will need that time to sort things, and his body.