• I just got work and realised there was yet another new sound breaking into my consciousness. Clear and open-throated, a bird was singing it’s heart out. Up high in the silver birch that shades my shed, a Song Thrush was singing. My Mother had heard it to and come out to see. I know spring is a long way away, but thses little signs help us to get there.

  • Today, Obama becomes the President. It seem a long time since he won the election. In Britain we do things much faster!

    However, to show thre are no hard feelings between us and our American cousins, we are having a tea party to join in the celebrations. We are getting out the best china for the first time in at least ten years, my wife is baking a cake and my mother is making Norwegian waffles – I suppose I should make some cucumber sandwiches!

    Yesterday was supposed to be Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. Well, let’s hope that today marks the beginning of a new era – with Bush and everything he stood for out of the way, it can surely only get better?

  • fox
    I just managed to get this very grainy picture of a fox that appeared, nosing around my pond. I have a sneaking suspicion that it might have been a fox that had my frogspawn last year, as there was a bit of disturbance on “the beach“, which is the shallow, pebbly part that lets the frogs get in and out easily.

    I’ve decided that this year I’m going to protect my frogspawn with chicken wire, see if that helps. It may be the newts that eat the frogspawn, but I’ve seen no sign of newts nor of newt spawn.

    This old fox looked a bit mangey. His tail was a short pointy stump, most of the hair having flallen out. His fur was blotchy too. I know there are foxes around. I saw one of the run of with one of the chickens that we brought with us. We dicided that this wasn’t the best place to have chickens.. I do miss having them. Chickens are great listeners!