Slow progress

I've not been on the patch for a few days - it hardly seems worth it when the sun rises at approximately the same time I need to be on the tube, and as I was away last weekend today was probably the first real opportunity for a while. I made the most of it, doing a complete loop of the Park and the Flats. For little reward it has to be said, as for all this talk of cold weather, huge tides and gargantuan amounts of snow, Wanstead has remained steadfastly dull. On Thursday I awoke to about half a millimeter of something that anyone who lives north of the Pennines would call a mild frost, and it had completely disappeared by the time I came home. Instead everything is just damp and miserably cold, with just enough ice on the local ponds to ensure that all the wildfowl have decamped to the Thames, but not enough ice to bring anything interesting in from a frozen countryside. Pathetic in other words, woeful for birding.

I struggled round manfully - five miles or so at a steady pace - I called it a dash on Twitter but actually it was at 3.3mph - and saw just two new species for the year, a couple of Siskin in the Dell, and then a small flock of Fieldfare over near the stables. I still can't dig out a Mistle Thrush anywhere, and tomorrow is looking very much like an indoor day with heavy rain forecast during all hours of daylight. So ends another week of local birding.

This Robin was really rather friendly. I expect it just wanted a handout mind you.

That is OK, I have plenty of other things to keep me going, a benefit of having lots of hobbies. My tax return for instance has been crying out for day like tomorrow. I have dutifully gathered all the required bits of information, one of which took over an hour to find in a stack of paper about two feet high. The number that I needed from it was zero. Excellent, excellent..... Given the effort I almost wish it had been something. 

There is of course a lot of blogging, and given I've just been away, a bit of photo-editing as well. I've almost finished potting up my stash of greenery from Madeira, the conservatory is looking less dining room and more Kew Gardens. Needless to say Mrs L is not impressed, plants are just things for her to walk into or that stab her. Sob stories about how they will all die if they go outside or in the greenhouse are just about working for now, but I don't know how long I've got - I need to get through to about mid-March I reckon. That's the trouble with this weather, I like it cold as it (very occasionally) brings birds and nice photographic conditions, but this clashes almost exactly with some of the other things I like, namely strolling around in shorts whilst poking at tropical plants and drinking chilled wine.