"she says we are not helping!"

Lovely walk today in my fleece instead of waterproofs and wellies. The temperature was a balmy 13' and it was just great.

Now it is time to take down the Chistmas tree and other decorations and guess who decided to come and help?

I had great excitement when I checked out the bird table to see three long tailed tits on the feeders - suffice to say they disappeared before I could get a shot. At least I saw them again.

I think I may have a solution - thanks to alasdairb - to yesterday's ponder on why the tree trunk had a star shape. If you check out this blip of a young Scots Pine you will see the buds forming the new branches all emerge from the stem at the same point. So perhaps the marks are from branches and it was just serendipitous that the trunk was cut at this point. Just a thought.