Chin up

The man on the village totem pole looked a bit sad today with his chin tucked into his snow beard.  The repurposed bicycle seats looked happier whilst he looked sorrowfully on (extra 1).  The birds are having a hard time of it too (extra 2). I took these shots first thing this morning on my walk around the village and, whilst out, I heard a very loud bang.  A little later, looking from an upstairs window, I saw footprints in the otherwise fresh snow in the front garden. Back outside, I could trace large paw-prints tracking across the road, round the back garden, up the steps, over the front lawn and down the bank towards the field.  Now, last Sunday, we saw a large fox in the field, out in the daylight no doubt scavenging for scarce food in the cold weather.  And today's paw-prints were coming from the direction of Jean Claude's hen run.  Jean Claude has a shotgun.  But there was no blood near the footprints, so he obviously missed and foxy lives to scavenge another day.