New Year's Day

We woke to brilliant sunshine. The Wrekin glistened with snow. There was a hard frost on the ground and I could see fox tracks leading to the piggery where the dog's food is kept. The tracks then went to the gazebo and on to the orchard. The birds were desperate for food and I had to refill the seed feeders again later. Two robins were busy arguing about who's food was whose. There were the usual visitors, blue tits, black birds, starlings and the doves. Two Crows chased the other feeders off the hill and had their fill there. Yesterday I tried to melt a a hole in the ice on the pond with boiling water from a kettle. It took two kettles full to do it and I then put an upturned bucket over the hole in the hope that it might stay unfrozen and a breathing hole for the fish. Today the bucket is frozen solid in the ice and I can't tell whether my efforts worked at all. I did see through the ice that the baby fish from the Summer are changing from there black camouflage to the orange colour of Goldfish.