And so begins 2011

First the good news.  I think the fish are not frozen solid.  We went out earlier to find that the ice is slowly melting and there were fish gulping for air around the edges of the pond.  And I've just been out to look, and most of them have moved away from the edges.  Dead fish generally do not swim around!

There are gadzillions of sparrows in the garden, a whole flock of long tailed tits, goldfinches, a robin, some blue tits and great tits, an occasional visit from a bullfinch and a bird about the size of a sparrow but slightly longer and not as rotund, and paler underneath that I don't recognise but which I think *might* be a linnet. They are enjoying the bird food we put out.

This was an upstanding ceanothus at the beginning of December

And this was an upstanding rosemary bush

It was part of a whole hedge of rosemary bushes ;-(

The twisted witch hazel is still upstanding

as is the dogwood

But these cabbages don't look very well

and the chard is very dead

With luck, these will recover

The chooks are happy though