In the run-up to Christmas

Remember this little trick of next door's cat Lucy?

Well, she's thought of another, on Sunday I snapped her sitting right in front of the food boxes, keeping the pheasants at bay - for a while, anyway:





My lovely friend Pam in America asked me if Lucy ever caught any of the pheasants - Pam, I've seen her DIVE onto a pheasant in the ditch but am not sure if she got it.  We did see her catch the tail end of a pigeon, though, and then proudly marching back home carrying one of the feathers upright in her mouth like a trophy, something like this:

 

I don't like to think of the times she caught baby waterhens, that really upset me, but there was an hilarious incident with Annie's family dog Ollie in early April 2010:

 

It finished up with Lucy growling and spitting at Ollie, she definitely ran out the winner in this confrontation.  Annie says Ollie is a "wuss" - a gentle dog who wouldn't say boo to a goose, and he truly is.

As you may have noticed from Sunday's 2 cat pictures at the top, we're back to rain since last Friday14th.  I don't mind at all, it's much easier for the ducks in the wet rather than the ice.  Thursday 13th was a particularly cold day when the water in the bowls and buckets froze over again during the day.  I got some nice photos, though:

 The ducks sat down a lot, pulling in their paddles to keep them warm, Candy even sat down to feed:

If you look closely at some of the pictures above you can see quite a few hen pheasants in them, waiting for their chance to get at the food or scurrying off into the undergrowth.  We have some very fine plump lady pheasants running around here [ok, I KNOW they've only fluffed themselves up against the cold]:

I have some more photos but I'm tired now and will save them for tomorrow or Thursday.

To finish for today, a lovely Christmas greeting from America, Pam's "crew" with festive head gear: