We're in December ...

... and I've not written a thing this month!  Another catch-up then.

First of all, we managed to surprise my lovely brother Gerd with a visit yesterday, on his birthday.  We very nearly missed him through keeping it a secret, because we arrived just as Gerd and Maria were going out to a country pub for a birthday lunch .................  It was well worth the long drive seeing how pleased Gerd was with presents and particularly the unexpected visit, and today he sent me a few photos from yesterday to commemorate the day:

 

The colours of Gerd's roses can be seen in the photo below right which I took before setting off on Wednesday morning - I can see in the photo above right that he's put them safe under the shelter of the Leylandii:

It was really lovely seeing Gerd and Maria again, on such a special day, and the weather for driving was good, too - but we could have done without the very low sun in our eyes!
We were very surprised to see that they'd had snow somewhere down south, we saw several cars with piles of snow on them and there was a scattering on the verges:

We were back home a bit later than we wanted to be as I'd foolishly overshot our exit off the M4 and had to double back 8 miles or so, but the duckies were already assembled in front of their huts.  Just one little mishap - I thought I'd seen Anke in the hut with the 13, and true enough, Captain had just got Candy for company last night!

We've had freezing cold weather on and off since last Thursday.  Our ducks and drakes from this year got a frightening surprise the first time we had to smash the ice on the ponds - PANIC in the hut!  
John has developed a brilliant system with the water buckets and bowls for the ducks.  He gathers them all in at night, fills them while the tap at the garage is running and stores them frost free overnight in the conservatory and in his shed.  He puts them out every morning in the right places and all I've had to do was put the breakfast food out, marvellous!

Although the pheasant problem is not as bad as it used to be we've not cracked it yet, I counted 12 hen and 1 cock pheasant yesterday morning - although they're not all on these photos:

Looking out of the window just now, lunchtime, I counted 13, 4 males and 9 females.  I suppose as we were out all day yesterday and Wednesday and leaving the food containers open for the ducks, it encouraged the pheasants again .....

Cat Lucy from next door still comes prowling around, stalking pheasants and other birds.  Last week I got a picture of her "hiding out" here:

Before I forget - we did go walking with the Moira Group yesterday, Rosliston Forestry Centre was our meeting point, and it was a cold, crisp and lovely morning.  An easy walk, coffee and a Cornish Pasty [just for me, having missed breakfast] in the lovely, warm café, and a good lunch at the Bull's Head in the village of Rosliston.  Sorry, no photos - I forgot my camera.