Snow Birds

The snow continues today, but with Cheshire coming off pretty lightly. All I have to show for today though are these dainty bird footprints found on the back door step as I left the house. By the way, the bird ground-baiting plan outlined yesterday is paying off already, as today we had 4 or 5 Long-Tailed Tits seen on the fat-balls all at once. We never get them in the garden normally.

There was about 2 inches of snow on the car as I walked to it this morning, but much of it had thawed from the ground by the time I came home late afternoon. After an slow drive to Bolton in the snow, I spent a sad morning at the funeral of Ann, mum of my friend Martin. What a lovely service though , and what a fabulous send off for Ann with the huge numbers of family and friends present. Martin gave a very moving Eulogy in a packed church, talking about his mum being a loving wife to his dad Cyril, and mother to him and his 4 brothers (and not to mention Grandmother to 12 and Great-Grandmother to 4). He included the story of his mum playing international football with her twin sister Peggy for England Ladies after the war (as well as her "forgetting" to mention that fact to him until he was 19).

Postscript: I have since come across this short silent film clip from the excellent Pathe News website of the game in 1947 where Bolton Ladies beat Edinburgh Ladies 7-1 in a football match at (I assume) the old Burnden Park ground of Bolton Wanderers FC. Incredibly, a huge crowd was present that day. Martin has since confirmed that both his mum Ann and his aunty Peggy played in this game, and he thinks he spotted them. He had never seen the film before, but I just wish I had found it earlier.