Is There Any More Tea In That Pot?: Snapshots of time. January 2014.

At the moment, I have been fascinated each day by two magpies in a neighbouring tree, as they have begun to reconstruct their old nest. (This web photo shows one already finished.) They take several weeks, as it is a domed structure, and the inside lined with mud, which dries.

I do not particularly like magpies, as they are noisy, in your face, kinds of birds which steal eggs and new chicks from other nests. That is nature I suppose, as each creature has to eat. They can't go out and buy their food. Yet as I can see them now from my window in the neighbour's tree, they are already busy at the beginning of this grey January day, bringing small twigs in their large beaks, then working together to place them exactly where they want them to be fixed.

They have my sneaking admiration for their diligence and effort, being completely focused on the task in hand.

Early January. Afternoon sun.

As it has been some time since my last post, I thought I would simply attach photos of random things in January. It has been the wettest month for a century particularly in the South and South West of England. many places are still flooded. It has also been very mild, and the blackbirds have begun to sing early. I still have flowering roses! Here at least in the West Midlands we have not had the awful floods of Somerset and other counties further South. We did have some snow flurries yesterday, but nothing like the freeze of last January.
The beginning of February traditionally seems to herald snow in the first two weeks, but we will have to wait and see................................in these topsy turvy seasons anything can happen.

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