A chilly start.

We woke this mornig to a beautiful hard frost, coating every blade of grass in a thick layer of white. After fortifying ourselves with hot tea and strong coffee we both went into the garden to take photographs of Nature's artwork. Above is the old coal skuttle I rescued recently from a friend who was using it as a cigarette butt holder! It's filled up this last week with rain and today is frozen solid. There is 10cms of water in there but as you can see, not a drop can escape thanks to the freezing night we had.

 

Frost ridged plants.

 

 

 

 The little stone, moon-gazing hare was coated in what looked like his own set of whiskers. Around his nose was a stack of little icy shards that gave him a life like appearance and whislt the chickens were noisely braving the drop in temperature it certainly helped that they have a new roof to their house. Just as we came indoors I heard Luke exclaim, "Sparrowhawk" and a flash of brown whizzed by his  head and between the two houses. He's visited a lot recently - after all, with four bird feeders on the Acer it's an easy place for the hawk to find his next meal. This time he was unlucky, as he was two days ago when all the blue tits flew off in a second and then were followed by Shakira, the enormous chicken, facing into the border to escape the danger she spied above. A moment later this sleek, stripped raptor landed on the bottowm branch of the Acer and we looked at one another for a moment before he took flight and in a moment was gone.

As I drove into work (after three attempts at clearing the frost from the windscrren of the car) I had to slam on the brakes as a grey squirrel raced under my wheels. Fortunately for it I was only travelling in second gear and had time to stop without hurting him but he had to dash. I think it might be time to put out the Christmas nuts I have stored at home. Everything likes a free meal and as I have no nut crackers I've no use for them. I'll pass them back to the squirrels who will be happy with them for dinner, I'm sure.