Noisy goldfinch

Despite the Met Office promising that the sun might appear in the afternoon, it actually remained deeply, darkly cloudy. At one point I thought I might have to resort to an indoor blip, but a lunchtime spell of bird-watching gave me this noisy goldfinch - noisy in that I had to use a ridiculously high ISO to get a shot at all. Still it's bright and cheerful, and what more can one ask for on a dull January day?

I went round the garden and noted a few more signs of spring:
- the snowdrops have tiny white buds
- one of the hellebores has a deep purple bud
- the starling's beaks are starting to turn yellow
- there were masses of blue tits picking small insects off the vegetation.

This afternoon we walked the dogs at Ferry Meadows - nearly all the ice has now melted, with just thin sheets in the more sheltered areas. There was a stiff breeze which was blowing waves towards the remaining ice sheet, and the air was filled with a strange tinkling from pieces of broken ice knocking against each other. The large flocks of waterfowl have dispersed now that there's more open water.

Off to cook tea now (last night's venison sausages were lovely - we get them from Sainsbury's). I can relax this evening as the accounts are finally finished!