Frost

The first line of a well known poem springs to mind - "season of mist and mellow fruitfullness..." But really, this is not autumn, this is winter. The hard frost continues. The ground is like iron, the puddles remain frozen into inch thick slabs of ice and yet is is beautiful. We went for a walk and made sure we stayed in the sunshine as much as we could.

We are running a bird-feeding station in our back garden. One beautiful little finch arrived on a twig as we looked out of the kitchen window, and a minute later, fell to the ground. The crow who stands guard over the garden flew down, plucked it and ate it. It would be still warm. Life is hard for birds when the weather is like this. I don't know how they survive the long, cold nights.

My favourite Gethin is out of Strictly. I reckon Matt got in on a sympathy vote. Fancy voting for the boy and letting the man go. It's a bit like the Robin-Guy of Guisborne argument. It might have worked better if Gethin had not been doing two Latin dances this week. I don't know who chooses what they dance, but if he'd done a waltz this week, things might have been different. As it was Aleesha did the quickstep, all flash and glitter, and Matt did a waltz. Of course, he had Flavia to do the tango with him, and she is so much better at it than Gethin's partner Camilla.