Welcome to a Windy start to 2014!

New Years Eve was not a pleasant day as far as the weather was concerned, but we enjoyed seeing in the New Year at the Railway Bell in Kearsney, listening to the innovative folk/rock group, Fate the Juggler.

It's always good to see a band that only does its own original material and not just go through the normal repertoire of other groups stuff.

The weather has been awful here, and last week we lost several large glass panes from the greenhouse (Chris, next door lost seven!). The main casualty have been the wooden arches down the garden. 

  The mess of wooden struts was a large arch with attendant roses and other climbing plants. It's not the first time it has been battered, but I think it is irretrievable this time.

At the time of the open garden safari in July (above), it did have a rather quaint list to one side (guess the predominant wind direction), but now it is bit and a full scale replacement is required.

Had this morning been pleasant I was intending to start the year with a healthy walk, but such was the disgusting nature of the prevailing conditions I sat at the window, watching the brave visitors to the garden while I read the introduction to volume 8 of the Birds of Africa, that covers the Malagasy region.Thus my birding start to the year was restricted, but one bright glimmer was the decent sized group of House Sparrows at their feeding station outside the kitchen window.

I resisted looking out until I got to the kitchen and there were at least four Sparrows clinging gamely to the fatball feeder while a force seven to eight wind tried to dislodge them!

Finally the day improved with two late late goals, the first by a player I thought AW should have got rid of years ago (shows why he's the best manager in the Prem). Top on Jan 1st is quite an achievement considering the perceived short comings of the squad.