Snow

Oops, I was wrong. The snow has returned with a vengeance. This morning I looked out on a white landscape. About 4-5 inches of snow, with another 4 inches promised overnight. Wonderful. I cleared areas on the lawn so overflying birds would see patches of green, then placed tons of food on the green patches: bread, seeds, fat balls, apples. The spectacle has been breathtaking: Blackbirds, Fieldfares, Chaffinches, and oodles of Starlings, as well as the usual birds on and around the hanging feeders: Goldfinches, Blue and Great Tits, a brief appearance by Long-tailed Tits, and, as usual, opportunist Wrens and Dunnocks pinching what they could.
By half past one, I was ready to venture out in my Land Rover to see what the Fens had to offer. I got half-way round Aldreth Fen when I realised I didn't have my mobile phone (cellphone) with me. Not a day to find yourself stranded in a snowbound fen with a three-mile walk back to civilisation, so I returned home. Never mind, at least I had picked up a flock of about eighty Golden Plover (see pic above) , so close to the road that I couldn't focus my binoculars on the nearest ones.
Then I decided to tackle North Fen, got about a mile into it and was getting excited by a a mixed flock of birds feeding on a moreorless bare field when a lens fell out of my glasses. So I abandoned birding and drove back one-eyed to my optician's in Ely, where the lovely Mrs Barker did the repair in a minute. Bless her, she's much sexier than she thinks she is (Don't worry, I am not being libidinous; Old Scrotes notice these things).
As to birding, I was frustrated, but when I called on my friend D on the way home, he was able to provide me with several treats, including a tray of Long-eared Owl pellets, a first for me, and then a feeding flock of Yellowhammers that he had estimated at about a hundred. We played the usual silly game of wondering what rarity might be among them. I plumped for Cirl Bunting, D for Pine Bunting.
And so home to a warm house and a glass of the good stuff. It's gone vicious cold now, and I reckon the temperature's really going to plummet during the night. That and more snow should make tomorrow an interesting day.
Humanitarian note: I have covered my bay tree with a mesh cloth, and I have brought the brass monkey into the house. Let's face it, if his goolies go gelid, there's no hope for the rest of us.