.
Not to belabor the matter, but light snow allows for definition that disappears beneath a heavy blanket of the stuff.
.
Perhaps you need to be a fan!
.
A crow found the buried nuts.
.
The new generation of crows seem to be losing the inhibitions we observed when we first came to Cambridge.
.
We were taken aback to find crows so distrustful of us.
Previously we’d found them to be bold to the point of being dead cheeky and their behaviour always amused us.
.
When we went food shopping, where I used to live, there were almost always crows around the parking lot picking over the remains of fast food they had filched from rubbish bins.
They weren’t a bit scared of us.
.
As I’ve said before, my boy Panther was very crow-like in his stroppy attitude and manner of marching around on his funny little legs.
Which is another reason Ive always been very fond of them, though I already was before Panther came.
Ravens too. The Tower of London and all that:
It is said that if the ravens leave the Tower, the Kingdom will fall.
.
At 0845 this morning, a crow sat atop the Medical Centre roof.
When I came out at 0940, it was still there.
.
Speaking of cheeky…
.
MASTER SPARROW and his minions
.
Little Man sits in a window watching them.
When he’s not dozing.
Or posing.
.
The sparrows don’t seem at all put out by freezing weather. They were singing joyously when we came home this morning.
Until they knew I was listening of course.
Some plants are proving very hardy too but if predictions are accurate, I think this one will finally succumb at the end of the week when it dips to 11F/-1C.
Or 6F/-15C which the earlier prediction said.
Cold, anyway.
.
Until my hands became arthritic, it was my practice when sending Christmas cards to write little notes with each one, but I had to abandon this a few years ago in favor of a computer written letter.
Lacking any other topic last year, I wrote about Notso the female cowbird that got left behind to over-winter with the sparrows.
.
In the end she didn’t stay the entire winter.
A flock of cowbirds and redwings came past in early January and she went off with them. We often think about her but we haven’t seen too many of her kind since.
This year’s Christmas cards I’m afraid will go without an accompanying letter.
Perhaps another Robert Frost quote?
Enjoyed as always!
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening is one of my favourite poems. I just discovered that at the funeral of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, on October 3, 2000, his eldest son Justin rephrased the last stanza of the poem in his eulogy: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises and earned his sleep.” How lovely!
Crows are very rare around here – so it’s nice to see them in your photos (even if they’re not as plentiful as they used to be). I’m always amazed to see how birds bathe – even if it’s cold and snowy. But then again, that’s probably in their nature right? I think an appropriate quote together with a Christmas card is a very good alternative to a handwritten note. Hmm, I wonder where Notso is … I bet she’s thinking back to the good times at your house 😊.
You have it much colder than here in Beetley. Although it feels cold outside today it is actually +6C.
The famous Tower ravens have their wings clipped so they cannot fly away. So we will never know if the kingdom might fall in their absence.
Best wishes, Pete.