Dead? Really?

There's this kind of stereotype about winter; everything dies or goes to sleep in November and doesn't come out until March. But I don't think that's true, based on what I saw in my garden this monring.

Maybe it's just because we put out seed for the birds, but I'm pretty sure there are more of them around now than there are in summer. I saw three or four bluetits, a robin and an enormous magpie, all while I was eating breakfast this morning. There were also two grey squirrels, which was reall cool because I've never seen them that close before. They were running along the fence and climbing up the trees and scampering all along the trellis. When I told Dad they were there, he jokingly said "Get out the shotgun."
We don't actually have a shotgun, but there's this very British thinking in regards to grey squirrels. They aren't actually British natives, and they've pretty much driven the red squirrels into extinction. People call grey squirrels 'tree rats' a lot, but I think they look cute.

And it's not just the animals that are still awake. The plants are hanging on too. While we have two decidedly dead sunflowers in our garden, one of the four or five rose bushes still has some flowers on it, and there's another that has buds. There's a red flower - I'm not sure what it is - about four fifths of the way down the garden that is still hanging on, and the rose that climbs up the side of the building that houses Dad's office and the garage still has a few pink buds on it. one of them looks like it might be a bit of apple blossom, because the branch sticks out from the wall and has wound itself around the branches of teh apple tree.

I live in a very strange kind of place, right on the boundary between man and nature. Out the front of our house is the main road that runs through the village we live in; admittedly, it's only the village high street, but we're right on the edge of the village, so, despite the 30 mph speed limit, people frequently come tearing past us doing at least 40.
At the back is the first in a series of fields which are owned ny the Woodland Trust, which are full of animals and trees and all sorts of lovely things. We get pheasants come into the garden every so often, and we regularly see deer out in the field. I try to take pictures whenever I can, because they're just so beautiful. I saw one, I think it was last week, that literally looked right at me as I took the picture. So gorgeous!

I think that's all I have to say for now.
Until next time my lovelyies!
Glitterb