Keeping Fit - or trying to!

Use it or lose it, they say, and how true.  I managed to get out between belts of first snow, then rain for a walk up the hill behind the house yesterday.  I like to try and keep active, and am more motivated now as I am going up to Sheffield to stay with my eldest daughter and we are having a day out in Lincoln - and the Cathedral (which we plan to visit) is at the top of a very steep hill!

We had a short flurry of very wet snow at breakfast time - big blobs of snow the size of 2 bob bits.  It didn't lay really, as it was so wet on the ground, but it was noticably colder outside and the birds were very grateful for their breakfasts.

The nut feeder and two seed feeders front of house feed the Sparrows who live behind our barge-boards, and sundry other small birds - Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinches, and a Robin.  Not to mention no end of blardy Jackdaws, one of whom lands on the biggest seed feeder and rocks it whilst pecking frantically so lots of seed falls for the birds beneath it.  I have had to take down the feeders for the fat balls because they were just demolishing the fat.  I now hang those from graceful branches in the hedgerow which won't support a Jackdaw.  In the Damson tree in the yard, I have more fat balls and a larger nut feeder, and I have umpteen Blue, Great, and Coal Tits visiting it, more Chaffinches, Nuthatches and a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.  Another GSW also visits the one in the front.  I have a third feeding station (just seed) in the Buddleia by the front gate.  They are all very busy this time of year.

A not very good photo of the Woodpecker on the Damson tree feeder.

This is the little stream which crosses our paddock, as it pours out of the culvert near the lane edge.

Although I stopped by our field gate to look back at the house, I then made it right up the hill without stopping, even though I did walk a little slower and not push myself too hard.  I was hoping for some distant snowy pictures, but there was low cloud.  Here is the pond in the top field and some vaguely whitened fields the other side of the valley.

A big old oak gatepost sports a crew cut of emerald moss.

A pathetic smattering of snow remained. . .

A bit of dead bracken across the valley, and the lane leading up to Llanfynydd village.

Slight snowy highleights the other side of the Towy valley.  You can just make out Dryslwyn Castle centre picture.

A little bit of colour in the landscape.

A last wintery glimpse . . .

Then I came home and practiced Prayanamic breathing (good for asthmatics), Meditation, and then Chair Yoga.  I was horrified at how stiff I have become since not having the horses, so that has got to change!  No wonder I was so stiff after a bit of gardening recently.

Anyway, another poem (Robert Frost this time) over on Dust on the Nettles.  Enjoy.