S'now fun anymore

The village

The snow plough has blocked us in having pushed enough of the white stuff up on to the sides of the road to barricade the entrance to the drive. Even the 4WD can’t get through it so it will be shovels out once it stops falling out of the sky. No point in starting it now while the flakes just keep coming down.

The garden is under a couple of feet and the birds couldn’t get at the feeders so a quick clearance job was needed for our daily diners to get to the seeds and peanuts.

Among the finches, tits, sparrows, dunnocks and robin, all squabbling and pecking furiously at the seeds, LotH spotted an oddity. A brambling had joined the chaffinches to grab some much needed sustenance. The poor deluded soul had flown over from northern Europe to escape the harsh weather and landed here in the worst winter for decades.
“The best laid schemes….etc”

Jackdaws have taken to coming to the fat ball feeder, clinging clumsily to the cage, wings flapping, as they peck at the suet. A yellowhammer, never one to voluntarily approach human habitation, has been warily inspecting the offerings. Times must be hard in the bird world

The geese have been flying up the coast in long straggly skeins, presumably looking for clearer feeding grounds.

Next day, two tracks were dug to get the Freelander out onto the road and a trip for essentials was possible. The main road from the village is “passable with care” mostly by 4WD’s but the other roads are only open courtesy of the local farmers coming in on their tractors to collect the “Scotsman” and leaving a couple of channels. Alright for pedestrians but too wide apart to be of much use to conventional vehicles.

Everyone seems cheery and the community spirit had come to the fore. The local shop has voluntarily rationed milk, a carer walked three miles to, and three miles back to visit her terminally ill patient, farmers have collected stranded workers with tractors, paths to coal bunkers have been dug for the elderly and cars given a helpful push on wheel-spinning slopes.
It’s all very picturesque and seasonal but it’s now getting to be a bit of a bore, like one of those snow scene ornaments that were popular years ago, after a couple of shakes, the novelty palled.
There is only so much winter wonderland one can take.