Meat and two veg (sorry Shaksta, you know you'll never be eaten)

Shaksta up on her perch in the hen house (the talc like powder behind her is red spider mite powder)

 Who says a garden can't be colourful in the middle of winter? Here, the ornamental cabbages still looks great even after three months.

 Purple sprouting looks too good to eat. I'm torn between leaving it to shine in the sun or snapping it off the stem so we can enjoy it's taste.

Frosty look.

This was the dusting of snow that we had last week.

Ice at the bottom of my coal scuttle last weekend. Even though the snow had gone it was still cold enough to stop the ice from thawing.

  

Nature creates it's own patterns in ice.

A tree full of finches.

Oh the joy.! I was siliconing over the small spaces between the new roof of the hen house and the original structure. Those pesky red spider mite who feast on nesting and sleeping chicken, sometimes to the point of killing them, love to hide in gaps int eh woodwork so I always check to ensure there is no chance of giving those unwanted mites a home. Because I wanted to get right under the roof joint it was easier to sit in the cleaned out hen house and work from there. When I unwound myself from their house there was a lot of movement and turning my head, I saw what looked like a tree in full leaf. As it was one of the coldest days of the year so far I knew this was not the case and on closer inspection the tree was laden with big brown sparrows, sitting on every limb and branch. They soon scarpered when they saw me but I was then treated to the sight of our Acer with seven goldfinches queueing impatiently to get to the nyger seed. Then yesterday we had a visit from 'Falafel', our friendly woodpecker.