Very proud mum!

Well, even though we have all had dodgy colds we made it to the school Christmas show. Because it's not a church school, they have a slightly different take on the nativity and this year was the Xmas Factor. Trouble was an angel of all things and Jedi was Mary. They both did a fabulous job and Jedi's solo brought a tear of sheer pride to her mummy's eye. The infants and junior are split and do their own little show and I have to say the standard was incredible. Those teachers must put so much time and effort in to get all those little ones doing and saying what they are meant to. And some of the juniors definately have an acting career ahead of them!!

Jedi's foot is much improved, her chest is fine and the troublesome child has been removed from the school, so things are definately improving for her.

I am still getting no eggs from my chickens, which is very frustrating but apparently I am not the only one! There was a young fox loitering around the house this morning so I must be vigilant. We have hardly thawed at all over the last few days but we have had no snow. The Bengal Brothers are spending most nights under my duvet and will wake me up, patting my face until I let them in.

I am slowly getting through the Christmas shopping but have disappointed myself by giving in to the kids and putting the Christmas tree up yesterday. Christmas never starts this early in this house! We usually put the tree up the weekend after my birthday, which isn't until Wednesday. I think we just all needed a bit of a boost, and I have to admit that seeing it twinkling by the window have lifted us all. Jedi has been madly wrapping everything in sight, I love wrapping presents but I haven't had a look in, she even offered to write my Christmas cards! The tree brings much joy to the cats of course and Clay has been climbing it every five minutes since it went up! Hubby would hate it but he's not here so up yours with ya humbugs!

Sunshine, birds and apologies!

Now I know that I've been blabbing on quite a bit since i started blogging only a short time ago, but I just keep thinking of things I want to say, and as the sun finally made an appearance this afternoon I heard the now familiar and strangely almost threatening sound of a kite circling.

I'm not a huge bird person, although I do have a soft spot for birds of prey, and i'm now living smack bang in the middle of Red Kite country, which is wonderful. But it's not just the kites, there's the buzzards of course and my neighbour swears he saw one of those escaped eagles not far from the house. It's the little birds too. We have the great pleasure of a family of woodpeckers who visit daily, along with a host of other birds that previously living in a town, i haven't had the pleasure of seeing before.

Woodpeckers

Nuthatches

Tree creepers

We even have Herons flying over the house sometimes! We have all the usual birds too, of course, House Martins, Finches and Tits of all shapes and sizes (I am still talking about the birds), and of course the Sparrows which sit on my satellite dish and disrubt the telly! Unfortunately though, the cats like the birds too, I'd rather they stuck to the mice, but I've had a robin at the bottom of the stairs, a baby nuthatch on the sofa and a blue tit flying round the lounge!

They all end up in the compost along with the vole I found on the patio this morning.