Impatience!

"Never mind standing there blipping, open the b***** door!"

Another lovely cold bright day, but with hardly any more snow showers. I boiled up a big pot of tiny little tatties, what are known as Piggy Tatties, presumably because they were boiled up for fattening pigs, for the hens and mixed some oatmeal into it They must be frozen in their wooden henhouse in this weather, poor things. They've got plenty of cosy hay in the nest boxes, but prefer to sit on the perches. I've been giving them warm water, but it soon cools and freezes.

Up at the ponies the ice on the water trough was really thick - the ball cock was frozen fast in the ice. I had to stamp really hard on it to break it. There was a cat I haven't seen before up there too, snuffling about in the straw. I know there are rats about, so it's more than welcome to stay. Ollie has no interest in hunting or sniffing out vermin - so different from my old Cairn, whose terrier instinct was very strongly developed! He just wants to play so we had a mad half hour chasing snow balls and rolling in the drifts - I say we - it was (mostly) him!