New Year Cheer

I am so pleased that we are nearly in 2010... I love the feeling of new beginnings...baby birds, spring flowers and sunshine...all just a few months away:-)

I found I didn't have much festive spirit this year despite a liberal intake of whisky...Christmas is just such hard work. I think that everyone had a good time though and my mother was pleased with a present of a new bird table. This turned out to be a bonus for me as, when we collected her old one for disposal, we found that it was only the table part that was irretrievably rotten so my husband set to work and made a new top. He had a bit of trouble finding wood strong enough on the old roof to fix the new supports...hence they are a bit wonky, but I now have a proper bird table.

My friendly robin is very pleased as no longer will his grubs blow away before he eats them all. Also, at last there is somewhere for me to feed the blackbirds (they don't like my hanging table as it swings about and because of a visiting cat, it is too dodgy to put food on the ground).

I have positioned it on the bank away from the other feeders so now, when I am sitting in my favourite armchair, I can see the bird table from one window and the hanging feeders from the other...just as well I have my stock checking duties otherwise I would be sitting there all day.

Now the snow has gone the stock checking is done wading along paths of mud. Everything looks rather dull and grey but on closer inspection there are a few shoots of new growth here and there, the birds are happily searching out food and the rabbits are able to dig for juicy roots again. The damp has also brought out some beautiful shades on the tree stumps left after the scrub clearance. It doesn't matter how dull the weather there is always something good to look at in nature...even so I can't wait for spring :-)

Happy Wishes for the New Year