Icy conditions

January is living up to its reputation of being a cold month. Fortunately, we've only had hailstones, whereas other places at higher altitude have had snow. The charity fun run had to be postponed as conditions were too treacherous under foot and is being rescheduled.

Reading a friend's blog post stirred memories of childhood and junior school in particular. Living in a hilly town on the lower slopes of the Pennines, wintry weather was great fun for children. 

Rather than picking our way carefully, we used to try to slide as far as possible. There were always 'home-made' slides in the playground. It was great fun, kept us occupied and warm from the exertion.

Doubtless, today's youngsters would be discouraged from such exuberant behaviour, as the 'risk assessors' would have a fit at such an idea, let alone if put into practice. 

At the weekend I ordered another sack of sunflower seed hearts (wild bird food), all 25kg of it. The way our local budgies are feeding, it won't take too long before we need to order more. We have an upright pole holding two feeders and another two hanging from lower branches of the old pear tree. They are at opposite sides of the garden.The pole is next to a large fuchsia shrub, Even tho' it is deciduous, the birds are attracted to it. There are several pairs of blackbirds round and about, including one individual with splashes of white on it, almost as tho' someone had been flicking paint.

I'm becoming impatient, wanting to make more progress with recuperation, but I need to bide my time. No news from the hospital, so am off to see the GP, I have some niggles I need to discuss. Also, I'm keen to start driving again, being chauffeured is okay, but I want my independence.