Being out in the countryside with my dogs gives me time to think. I’ve learnt the pleasure of solitude without being lonely, and that’s a good feeling for me.
OUR BIRD-TABLE has a nesting box built as a sort of upper storey above the feeding tray, and last season two families of blue tits were reared from it. Tits mainly build their nests in holes in trees and crevices in walls, but readily take to nesting boxes.
FRESH BREAD baked this morning, and this year's home made marmalade – both made by the Doyenne of course – are the ingredients of the dream breakfast. Son Robert and his family gave us a bread making machine for Christmas.
HOT SPOTS in the snow seemed a little out of place. I was walking the dogs alongside a snow-covered field that had snow-free patches of grass dotted about.