Winter appreciation

Today the Hunt met at the pub next door but one, and then trotted up the road, past our house to start their activities. It was a marvellous sight, all those beautiful horses and their riders and the hunt dogs. I am used to them now but first time around I was amazed how big the dogs are.

We bumped into the Percy Hunt when we travelled oop north the other week. I know hunting is an emotive subject but I was surrounded by these huge dogs with big brown eyes pushing each other out of the way wanting a stroke. I even looked up 'foxhounds as pets' I was so taken with them [the advice was; don't!]. They were beautiful beyond belief.

Beautiful indeed - an amazing sight. Having witnessed 'cubbing' once- I can never see a hunt without thinking about that awful sight.

I remember stopping on a country road in East Leics, and walking to a hill to watch the Quorn go about its business. A very haughty woman stood next to me and said 'what a wonderful viewpoint' and I replied 'that depends on your point of view'- if looks could kill...

Love the dogs, HATE the 'sport'. Disgusting and pointless activity.

Since foxes are no longer involved what is the harm? It is a social gathering of riders having a day out chasing a scent. No different from people without horses running marathons.

Two female bullfinches scoffing dried ragwort seedheads. Another reason not to tidy up the boggy brae too much .

And a treecreeper on various trees.

I've had a lot of finches in the garden lately. Realised it might be because of the sedums I now have in the garden? Only just occured to me that might be the reason.

FlicketyB- if you think foxes are no longer involved, you do not live in the countryside do you? I lived in the middle of 4 of the most famous hunts until recently. And of course they use birds of prey to hide their activities now. My anecdote yesterday was in the days pre the 'ban'.

And behind any hunt are the activities of the terrier men (:

I agree, granjura, we also live in the countryside!The haughty attitude seems to pervade them all when out.The times we've waited ages to pass on a public road while they have a chat on horseback are too many to count.
My husband once rescued a hound which had got caught up on barbed wire.The response of the huntsman, when told was, "Oh, he'll learn, he's only young!" No concern for the animal's welfare at all.
Yes, the Hunt is an amazing sight, but I wouldn't want to be a fox, ban or no ban!

Just been watching a flock of goldfinches, siskins and chaffinches scoffing something on the ground beneath a silver birch tree. The tree seems to have shed all its ripe seeded catkins so I suppose there are a lot of spilled seeds on the ground. I watched one goldfinch shaking something repeatedly, prbably trying to get seeds out. Never seen them ground feeding before (except chaffinches); they usually seem to be in the trees.

Bluetits mob the bird feeder early in the day; about midday their place is taken by the long-tailed tits in a fairly large flock. The pigeons and collar doves hang around underneath waiting for the grains the tits drop.

My Mum's boast was that my GGF had hunted with the Quorn - and I never doubted it. I used to quote Oscar Wilde about the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable. Mum was not impressed!

Love those little finches and long tailed tits.
Beautifully calm mild day here. Watched a cormorant that must be the Tom Daley of the Straits, such was the elegance of its diving action.
Contrast to yesterday when we went to the wild coast with salt spray flavouring the air, wondered at the re-scuplted dune line and watched ravens strutting their aerial stuff in the teeth of the wind.

Flocks of Golden Plover over our neighbouring fields and Reed Buntings on our feeders

Gnats! A small, busy cloud of them, dancing around my head on my walk yesterday. They must think it's Spring.

The Jackdaws wait for the daily refilling of the fat balls and then descend. The other birds wait below for the bits that escape.

Jackdaws on bird feeders look huge and clumsy don't they

Got gnats too, ffinn. Not biting yet.

Do bats eat gnats?

Snowdrops just showing little white heads. Tightly closed still, and close to the ground. Any day now!

Ooh, I wish we got snow drops.

The oranges are at their best.

Just been doing my first NT gardening stint of the year. Witch hazel is the star turn, one of the few things that is really gorgeously in bloom in January. A beautifully scented mahonia japonica too, just coming out. And a few snowdrops!

Just had a good peer at my snowdrop patch - not an inkling of growth showing. Daffs are beginning to push through. Just in from my bash around the lanes, and the lovely red stems of Cornus in the scruffy hedgerows are topped with little clumps of bursting yellow flowers. Cut some of the non-flowering stems to enjoy at home. Left the flowering ones to brighten up the otherwise dull palette of old brambles and dead grasses.

ffin just read your post and popped out to look for my snowdrops. They are just peeping through, though the daffodils are further ahead. My garden holds memories of the people who gave me surplus bulbs, cuttings, plants etc. Sadly many of them have died, but when I see their bulbs pop up or their bush flower then they live on in my memory

Yes, it can be poignant, but I wouldn't say sad.
The honeysuckle I have in this garden originated from my grandmother's garden (whom I never knew) from cuttings my mother took, from which I made cuttings, and more cuttings as I moved house. Yet more cuttings given to friends, and so it lives on.

Agree but there isn't a poignant emoticon!