Signs of the Seasons

My crafting time has been severely cut over the past few weeks as my Mum has been seriously ill and I've been away from my crafty stash for much of the time. So please accept my excuses, and I offer instead something to look at from the garden. Here are two welcome signs of the change of season we are all looking forward to. These tiny spikes are snowdrops pushing through the debris of winter and I like these tightly budded hazel catkins looking rather arty against the rusty roof of one of my son's slowly decaying vintage cars.

I've been stalking the bird feeders again with my camera, albeit staying warm and pointing my lens through the window. We've lots of different bird visitors and I recently lured the Goldfinches closer to the window by offering them Niger seeds - something they can't resist. They live in little flocks and I must say are very prone to squabbling. They are so pretty and really liven up the feeders - as of course do all the tits. We've have bluetits, great tits, longtail tits and coal tits visiting for peanuts and fat treats. I still have to get a good image of some feeder visitors - the very shy woodpecker, nuthatch, and the longtails - and hope to post them here when I do.

One new visitor I was delighted to see was this little female blackcap - the males do have black caps but the female's is brown. This isn't a good photo but I'm proud of her and want to show her off anyway.