Starling in the snow

Camilla came round to view pictures I've recorded of Lansdown Hall and the various improvements that the council has commissioned over the last two years. She is preparing some funding bids for the next stages of the upgrading of the facilities and the repair of the fabric of the Cotswold stone exterior.

We had fun and managed to chat while we perused some very poor pictures, as well as a few usable ones. The need to sort out my pictures has forced me to address a general clear up of not only my digital data, but also of my whole study, and as a result I've spent the rest of the day sorting and clearing my desk. I drove Woodpeckers to the station, as she was running a bit late for her train to Swindon, where she will be meeting an old friend from her days in the Czech Republic back in the 1990s.

When I returned home I poked my nose out of the back door to see what was going on. It has been snowing very lightly nearly all day although it hasn't settled anywhere on the ground, even on the higher slopes of the hills. It was then that I saw Starling on one of his regular sleeping posts on the shed roof next door, which is his home. Aged 19, he is quite elderly now and has always been quite shy in comparison to Bomble, who is always happy to approach any humans. It has taken seven years for Starling to let me walk past him without running away.

I grabbed my camera, took a couple of shots and then he opened his eyes for a minute before settling down into a complete ball of fur to sleep out in the snow. He was still there an hour later when I opened my study window to see if he was ok. It must be worth having a coat like that. Bomble is an asian breed and his approach to riding out the cold weather is to take to out bed and to ruffle the duvet up around him and sleep all day till it is time for food again. If we put his special cat blanket over him, so much the better.