There is nothing like a bath when you are cold, and in this weather by the end of the day, I am cold. The house is heated in my study and the kitchen, but not elsewhere, and by the time I have taken puppies out numerous times, a bath is just great, especially with good smells and bubbles!! mmmmmmmm Perfect!

We have serious snow, it arrived the night before last, we had about an inch when I went to bed, and about five to six inches when I got up. The dogs think it is wonderful, of course it is the first proper snow that the three pups have seen and they have been having such fun. Acer runs through biting it, Sedge is up to his chest in it, but so energetic that he just runs through, Sorrel is like a rather small tank!! And she buries her head in it and then rolls over. She has such a thick coat that she never seems to feel the cold, where Sedge does shiver when he comes in. I have to limit the time she is out there and she knows it, so she runs away, little bugger!!

No one could get in yesterday, so Simon Adam and I did stuff, we checked the birds, and had to chop up a lovely Sumac tree that had fallen over in the snow, Simon fed round and then we had coffee, after which we built a superb snowman outside the house, he is very splendid, although he appears to have a slight list to starboard this afternoon. The snow was perfect for building him, good job we did it yesterday as it is not nice and sticky today, after the hard frost last night. I took down my Christmas tree and we burnt it and the branches from the downed tree. Then after lunch we finished the last aviary in the moulting barn, moved the falcons, and put in Dawn Run and the wild injured Peregrine so that was two less falcons to worry about in the cold.

I have to say I am SO glad I have completely roofed in aviaries, I know that my birds are dry and fairly snug. I really feel for birds in open topped pens in this weather. And I know that at least two people have had problems with their birds from not taking enough care and notice of the weather.

Today Jan and Holly managed to get it, plus two friends, so after picking up all the trained birds out of the indoor hawk walk, weighing them, cleaning their shelf perches and the sand, and checking them over, Holly, Adam and the two friends did bird paperwork, which was very much needed and very good to do, now we have made a start I think we will finish it off in the next few days. Simon painted the incubator room ready for the first eggs to arrive this year.

I think the fish food my fish are eating is making my screen grubby, there are marks on it in exactly the place I feed the fish!! Hummmmmmm very suspicious! I am still waiting for the dead insect that is inside my flat screen and has been for over a year now, to disintegrate, it will be an interesting experiment…..

The place looks amazing in the snow, but it is holding up getting birds going again, so we are going to get the Snowy Owl flying in the snow, just imagine what we could do on photography days here!! There are many places doing that, but I happen to think that we do it the best, with great backdrops and even greater birds, and for all the right reasons too!