Cold, Colder....

The snow has continued to fall, in occasional but sometimes quite heavy flurries driven by light easterlies, though this is starting to change, with the wind backing into the north and becoming much more gusty. Last night the sky cleared enough for the temperature to fall to a cold -6C though this seems warm by comparison to our son's Edmonton, Alberta, where the current temperature if -35C.

We do seem to be fortunate in our walks, this morning's, like yesterday's, through woodland and bright sunshine with....

....a small skein of greylag geese passing high above us heading north. Had I their wings and stamina, I'd be going south.

The patented small bird feeder which was languishing in the front garden has now joined the other feeders in the back. For a whole day no-one visited it, not even to take the seed from the top: perhaps it's too close to the kitchen window for comfort. However, one of the four robins that are disputing the rights to the garden has now come to it but the wealth of seed inside has yet to be discovered. 

Feeding the birds is costing a fortune. Our local bird food stockist, the excellent old-style hardware store in the village, has run out of the cheaper fat cakes so I had to buy two of these for the cold snap, at £1.99 a time. The blue tits appreciate them.

Perhaps it's the cold but the species numbers in the garden has varied considerably in the last few days. The number of chaffinches has increased; the coal tits are suddenly, sadly, very thin on the ground; and the greenfinches, worryingly, have disappeared.

The forecasters are promising us another bitter night, -9C with light winds and more snow showers. The break into warmer weather promised for Thursday has now been put back to Sunday. I think we've had enough of this wintery weather.