FATTENING SQUIRRELS IS ALL I DO

Jut thought - I have missed the RSPB Great British garden birdwatch. Usually they email me to remind me.
Actually all the birds have been eaten by this very fat squirrel. (Not actually).

But how does one put a wild squirrel on a diet? If I don't feed him/her I don't feed the birds.

So, have I been in the garden - not a lot. Have a stonker of a cold. The sun is out now but I am a bit fragile. Have my new glasses - computer glasses set at two and a half feet - hope that will get rid of my computer neck - it seems to help but I have too be careful as, with the shallow depth of focus, I get nauseous if I wander about. (Mind you any untoward effort makes me a bit sick)(just sitting still is my sort of thing)(must go in the garden)(or have a cup of tea?)

This is Horseradish beginning to sprout - hot stuff.

There are snowdrops all along the side of the path in the wood where R replanted - looking great - will need to keep dividing and planting to spread them.

The image below of one of the snowdrop clumps outside the kitchen door is co-habiting with a button mushroom. It was filthy weather the other night and rather than put the past it mushrooms in the compost bin R chucked them out and shut the door.

In the dog house (well we don't have a dog but you know whatI mean) as I have donated my stonker of a cold to R. I know marriage is about sharing but . . !

So we went away for a break - it lasted 24 hours and we are home, R zonked out in the kitchen. The sun is out but we are in stuffed with paracetamol and mugs of hot drinks. Another special! holiday.
Have pruned the shrub roses lightly to prevent wind rock and remove dead bits and crossing branches, put on some old horse manure as a mulch - that is on the flower bed.


First crocus and iris out. Thursday and the song thrush has returned and is belting it out from the big sycamore - spring is on its way. So are showers.

Friday - not raining yet but the forecast is decidedly damp - nip out, do a bit, nip in, have a mug of tea sort of day. The snowdrops look better and better, as does R after the cold.
Out to put in drain by the apple tree where a spring has appeared three feet above an existing drain. Then tried to dig up the Viburnum in front of the house - no way - roots too rooty so found a side shoot with roots and replanted that then sawed it off at ground level. 
Before taking the shrub to the bonfire heap, took a few hardwood cuttings and plonked them in the cutting bed - you never know.

SUDDENLY all the little birds are gone and, down by the pond, sitting on a pipe is the sparrow hawk. Too quick for the camera.

PREDATOR

There is a ghost on the glass,

a sparrow hawk silhouette

wings spread in feather dust.

The sparrow side-flew 

the predator, scraped

the pebble-dash in panic.

The falcon staggered away, 

flew raggedly to an ash

to recuperate and preen.

The garden was silent with fear,

waiting for the grey missile to leave, 

streak over the barbed wire, hunting.

Saturday - rain.

To finish - here is a monochrome pic looking across the bay. One person on Flickr congratulated me on the hawk flying in the shafts of sunlight - sadly its a straggling Herring Gull heading for the tip.