At its deepest we had 5" of snow on the ground and temperatures dropping well below zero but that didn't prevent this plant from producing the UK's first snow strawberries.
The snow brought the birds in to the feeders in the back garden in unprecedented numbers. Chaffinches probably outnumbered all the other birds put together, followed by house sparrows, blackbirds, coal, great and blue tits, goldfinches, dunnocks, wood pigeons, a rook and a single siskin. At one point I counted thirty-five birds enjoying our hospitality; and this afternoon took delivery of 25kg of sunflower kernels. That should keep them going for a week or two!
In yesterday's late afternoon, with the temperature dropping, the house sparrows decided it was a good time....
....to take a bath.
Meanwhile, in the front garden....
....where water is provided in an old frying pan, the chaffinches, along with a few goldfinches and a greenfinch, were cleaning up the sunflower seeds dropped from three feeders by goldfinches and coal tits.
By the end of today most of the snow had thawed. It may be beautiful when it first falls but, for those of us who aren't as nimble on our pins as we used to be, it really hasn't been much fun.
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