A cold, cold night to come...

I woke early, but luxuriated in the fact that I didn't actually need to get up for any particular reason, and snuggled down for another hour listening to two episodes of 'The Infinite Monkey Cage' on my iPhone. Pete introduced me to this :if you enjoy science and stand-up comedy, you'll probably appreciate it too.

Once again the morning was bitterly cold and overcast, with veils of mist and fog, but just as I was working up the enthusiasm to go to Sainsbury's the sun came out, so the dogs and I went off to the river instead. It was a crispy crust snow day - very satisfying to crunch through.

The Rowing Lake and river were largely frozen so birds were sparse, apart from a scatter of swans and the occasional moorhen and mallard. Apparently one swan had come to grief, after a Jack Russell ran onto the ice and injured it. A fox finished the affair, but at least it gave him a good meal, probably welcome in this weather. And though swans are very beautiful, we do have rather too many of them, which results in the males sometimes killing neighbouring cygnets.

When I got back home I was surprised to see our neighbour on our drive, lifting one of the manhole covers. Apparently his drain was blocked, and as there is a shared exit to the sewer he needed to check our pipes too. We found the blockage, and luckily he had a set of drain rods so we were able to clear it. Oddly enough I quite enjoyed the experience - and now have a much better idea how our sewerage system operates!

I made a pot of tasty Austrian inspired soup for lunch and spent the afternoon doing bits and pieces on the computer, mostly deleting more old photographs. When I was making a cup of tea for everyone I was amazed to see a huge flock of fieldfares land in the top of our willow tree - at least 50 individuals. Unfortunately the light wasn't really good to get a decent image, though I took a few for the record.

The sun was just about to set and looked promising, so I nipped out to our local parkland in the hope that it might be colourful. It was absolutely bitter, and I didn't hang around too long! I rather liked the shape of this tree, which I believe is a red chestnut, and you can see that we still have a little lying snow. I think it'll be hanging around for a few more days, given the predicted temperatures. Once I'd got my shot I dashed back to the car, and then I finally went to Sainsbury's!!