Winter rose

The kids had me roped into path clearing and den building activities today, which resulted in some wandering around the garden, where I found a couple of roses had got their timings a little wrong and put in an appearance. But a welcome chance to muck around with settings on the camera. There are shots that have better composition but, as I was too lazy to go upstairs for the tripod, this is the only one with blurry bits in roughly the right places.

You nearly ended up with a bit of hairy bark today - but I'll save that joy for a day when the light is not so enticing. Really I should be out there making a hide to show you some of the wonderful wildlife we have here: the kids were playing uncharacteristically quietly the other day and spotted a pine marten in the branches above them. And today an eagle flapped by meandering its way down the river. That's quite apart from the wild boar rooting around in the garden every night. (Not sure I'm so keen on a close encounter with one of those though.)

Aside from the outdoors activities (including a picnic lunch - in January!) today was for sorting computer stuff out. I bought a webcam the other day and managed to get the software loaded and Mr B (in Scotland) and my parents invited to join. Mr B dutifully signed up and we had a couple of video calls - though as he doesn't have a microphone he was having to charade his responses.

Mam and Dad seemed to enjoy it, in fact it was them who prompted me to get a webcam since Mam sounded a bit upset about being so far away from the kids when we chatted on Sunday. At least this way she can see them and we can chat (for free) for as long as we like. Must remember to brush my hair and have a bit of a tidy before we have another go....