Grey day! Pub lunch.

I did not post anything yesterday as I did not have something of particular interest for a blip photo.
  The weather at the moment is grey and misty. 
Everything outside is still just now as I sit and look through the patio window, this cold afternoon. 
I am thankful for central heating and a warm radiator close by. 
The birds have decided to go to roost early I think and they've deserted the feeders already. 
It was busy this morning. 
Several jackdaws and the squirrel have taken a liking to one I recently hung back up on the apple tree, having dismantled it to clean, before reassembling it and filling it with mixed seeds. It does not have a "cage" around it, like the others,  which are designed to stop these larger birds and the pesky squirrel. They do work. 
 I discovered that the little critter has dug up my small bulbs from some of the pots outside! 
    This morning we went in search of a replacement gas fire for the front room. 
It was serviced recently and although it functions the base "plate" on which the imitation coals sit, has cracked right the way through. They are now obsolete, so hence the need to find a other one.
    We booked a survey for next Tuesday after we had been to the store. 
Thankfully it can be replaced quite easily as it is a standard size.  
A pub lunch followed this exercise at one of our favourite venues. The Tame Otter. It is situated by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal in a picturesque location. 
There was a cheerful log fire in the grate to greet us in the cosy atmosphere. 
Just the thing to brighten up a dull drizzly drippy misty January day.
My dad's clock is ticking away in the corner on the wall. Photos in extras. 
He bought it when mum died in 1990, (aged 70), to counteract the silence he said, and I brought it here after he died in 2008. It's been repaired a couple of times, but still ticks away. I like that sense of continuity.         
The light is now fading again outside, which makes me feel like hibernating...........