Snow way!

During this last month we had a bit of deja vu. We had a wren visitor inside the house, just like last year! This time the poor thing somehow managed to come inside without us noticing just before we went to visit family for a few days. Terrible timing for the wee thing to have an explore. Luckily, I still keep my watering can in the kitchen to save water, and it was full, so the wren had access to water, and we had lots of spiders for it to eat. It had also found a butterfly which it had munched on, we must have some trying to hibernate in the house again. This meant that we came home to a very healthy looking bird, but lots of little bird poos and munched insects around the house! I'm so glad it was OK though, phew!

Poor butterfly eaten by the wren

The weather has been pretty windy which has meant the wind turbine has come into its own again. :) We'd have been pretty stuck without it on some days where it's been so grey there's been negligible solar. We've also had quite a lot of snow! It hardly ever snowed where we used to live, so it's quite exciting for us, although it does mean extra fuel for the fire is needed. We'll probably have to cut some trees back for next years firewood soon.

Snow!!!

I've been spending spare time making firelighters in various forms. It's quite a nice meditative activity to do when I'm too tired to do bigger jobs, but is still a lot more useful than sitting and watching TV.
These are some of the things I've found to be best at starting fires;

• Pinecones (Thank you Hilary for collecting these for us!)
• Bundles of very thin sticks and conifer fronds tied together with waxy string
• Egg boxes filled with sawdust and melted wax, then cut into segments
• Rolls of cardboard into log shapes
• Toilet roll tubes stuffed with newspaper

Waxy sawdust-filled eggbox firestarters

With the cold weather, the birds have been grateful for the food we're leaving them. One bird feeder wasn't getting depleted as fast as the others and I was wondering why, as it used to be a popular spot. It turns out a little robin is being very territorial and guarding it from the other birds! Greedy thing!

During a lot of the miserable days, I've been hiding indoors and decorating. It's the bedroom's turn this time. After painting (something I seem to have done an awful lot of lately...) Iain and I managed to fit a carpet successfully by ourselves, we feel quite proud! It's lovely having a gradually more homely house to come back to after a day in the field. :)

Fitting our bedroom carpet

To cause maximum disruption and to ensure that the rest of our house is a big mess, at the same time as bedroom decoration, we're also building a conservatory. Our bungalow is quite a small L shape, so we're filling in the corner with another room. We're hoping it'll be warm enough to have a table out there, so then we can have more space in the kitchen, as that's far too cramped for a working farmhouse.

Amazingly, despite the bad weather, we still have some veg! Not much, but the chard and carrots are still doing well which I wasn't expecting this late in the year so I'm feeling very chuffed. Something has been nibbling the tops of the carrots, probably mice, as there are lots of them about, but it's not affecting the root so we all win :)

Purple carrots still doing well in December

Now I think it's time for me to think about preparing for Christmas! I've done pretty much nothing so far, except bring our living tree into a workshop so it isn't too shocked by the warmth of the house... lots of presents to buy and make, wreaths to make and decorations to put up. I hope you're all a lot more organised than I am!

Merry Christmas everyone! :)