Rich Pickings

As I stopped and looked at the fleeting sunshine coming through the trees this morning, I noticed the bark on this birch tree seemed incredibly rich in colour. As well as the reddy browns there are also tiny green flecks. I think the lines might be stomata - pores which open to allow the tree 'breathe'!

As we got breakfast ready this morning we noticed that a blackbird was sitting on the back door step gorging himself on some of the apples we'd picked from the tree in the garden and which were waiting to be stewed! We decided that as it was cold we would leave some of the apples for the birds and take a few in for ourselves - so its apple crumble for pudding tonight (and no doubt apple for breakfast for the blackbird)!

Many thanks to you all for your lovely comments and stars for my 365 blip yesterday - you made my day (O: