Cíorbhuí

More snow in the night but everything is currently dripping and thawing. I am astounded at the number of birds in the garden and whilst stalking the hundreds of redwings that seem to have arrived, I spotted this tiny fella - a goldcrest. The smallest bird in Ireland, even teenier than a wren, and marked with a smart gold topknot. He was busy finding grubs in the tree trunks. Along with the redwings, we now have several lapwings/peewits (not plovers as I said yesterday) in the field next door and also a female blackcap lounging on the bird feeder. In fact I counted 24 different species out and about today!

We went for a bracing walk around the circuit, the roads much better and everywhere still looking luminous - see Kitchen Cove. There was also a chap resting on the wall near the pub, obviously a bit worse for wear!

I'm going off piste for a few days now - fingers crossed. Cork airport has only just re-opened and I suspect is chaos but we are travelling up tomorrow and will stay overnight in the hotel then hopefully on to Bristol on Monday. It's time for son#2 and his girl to head off on their mega adventure to New Zealand so we are coming over to say our farewells. Gulp. He has booked us all in for a twilight session at Thermae - hope they're open!  Everything crossed in fact. Catch you soon.