Friday 2nd January - michief, tiding, conventicle, or tribe

 I've spent a good deal of time today watching the bird feeders. It's a constant joy. In all the decades we've lived here the feeders have never been as successful. 

Today I spotted sparrows, blue tits, long tailed tits for sure. Possibly other birds; I'm not that good at telling them apart yet. Definitely 2 starlings, but I'm glad they didn't stay too long, gobbling up the peanuts.

More ominously I saw just the tail of a squirrel in the big oak tree... I hope it doesn't start gorging on the bird seed and peanuts. I thought they hibernated, it is certainly cold enough at the moment. Below zero all day, and into next week as well.

Then there was a great commotion and a mischief or tiding or conventicle or tribe of eight magpies suddenly arrived in the oak, flushing out several pigeons from the branches. 'Eight's a wish, and nine's a kiss, and ten is a bird you must not miss'; who remembers that from the opening music for the children's TV programme?

We had to call out the gas board as there was a strong smell of gas at the bottom of the garden (cooking gas, not gasolene). We know there is a massive gas main running along the common ground parallel to the backs of the houses. I remember when they replaced it about 35 years ago.

It turned out this was due to some work being carried out some distance away so 'our' gas main is fine. He noticed in passing that some widget on our gas meter needed changing ('we swap these out whenever we notice them because they sometimes leak' said the gasman) so that got done in passing.  And we didn't even know it needed doing.

May I introduce Arnold Promise?

This will be my tree of the year 2026. It's a witch hazel I got in the Summer. 

It's so appropriate; my father died a year ago today. When my mother died in January 2016, we didn't know what to do with ourselves (me, my husband, my father, his brother and sister-in-law) so we all went to Nymans Gardens for lunch. They had witch hazels for sale, and my father wanted to buy me one, because I admired it and it was so pretty, but in the end we didn't get it. Now I've got what he and I both wanted.

It's in a pot at the moment, because I'm not sure where to put it in the garden. We are planning Major Upheavels at the back of the house this year so it will have to stay in the pot for a while until things settle down. Having been reading how trees all communicate through their root systems and the soil, I can't bear to keep it in a pot like a lonely caged animal for any longer than necessary. 

And here are the two Amaryllis flowers 

What a change from yesterday. Drawing the bud every day is fascinating.