Christmas Eve

Just wanted to wish my reader a very Happy Christmas and bring this blog up to date.

This morning I received an email from a correspondent who last Thurs  saw 5 Little Egrets sitting in a line in a field at Langleys, some Redwings (also in field) and several Goldcrests (a bird  we'd

never actually seen before although heard) unusually very low down in a
hedgerow.  There's me crowing (and there are plenty of crows around here) about the odd one or two we see hereabouts and dear old Bill gets to see a whole plague of them! C'est la vie! So Scamp took me for a walk this afternoon - nearly did my gammy ankle in - we walked miles and did we see anything? Just  crows, magpies and pigeons of which there is a veritable plague - there have been hundreds (I mean hundreds) roosting in the trees here feeding of the fields - hence the recent multiplication of scarecrows and bird scarers.

Do hope Santa brings you want you want: by the way- we discovered that he does not live in Lappland but is alive and well in Turkey - here is his picture.

He is based on the life of St Nicholas who was born at Myra in Southern Turkey and which has a shrine and a wonderful statue. It is a pilgrimage site for many Russians - the day we were there it was packed out with them!

You can read more about it elsehere in my blog where I gave  an illustrated account of the journey.

Any way Happy Christmas and a

BRILLIANTLY HAPPY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR!