On the Ice

As I mentioned a few days ago, I always feed the birds. What they get depends partly upon what's around, but the recipe always has a base of Dovecot Mix, often with some little pieces of fat added, plus any bread or old cereal or biscuits.

Today I added a plentiful sprinkling of dried mealworms, as robins in particular love these.

My little red bowl was full of these exciting ingredients and I marched cheerily out of the back door clutching it in one hand.

Unfortunately, the top step had decided, overnight and without letting me know in any way, to turn into a sheet of ice.

So my foot shot from under me and I landed on my back down the steps. It HURT and made me think that, after testing this business of landing from a height on something hard, I am never going to enter Dancing on Ice no matter how much they beg.

I was also covered in mealworms. Lovely.

So there I was, sitting in the snow, picking up bird food and hoping it will soon be Spring.

Stephen has just got back from Helsinki in Finland where they seem to positively relish the slippiness of the ice: Helsinki is full of ice rinks like this:

Not that this one was exactly crowded. Maybe the Finns, too, are beginning to realise that falling over on the stuff isn't fun.

Even the sea was frozen:

and there were lots of little snowy islands:

Still, it looked pretty.

I think he's had the best of the wintry photo-opportunities. He's had the frozen sea in Helsinki: I've had the bed soaked by the leaking hot water bottles, and a lap full of mealworms. No justice, is there?