I know it is winter now, I can see the huge satellite dish on the house down the road (I live in the middle of the short bottom row of a block,so see the backs of all the houses in that block) which means that all the leaves have gone from my B Service tree and all I can see on it is the clemetis that has climbed up through it. The magpies are laughing at me every time I go out into the garden, where there is still one single bloom on the 'Swan Lake' rose; there is sloe wine bubbling away in the dining room, pots of jam in the cupboard and an overwhelming desire to curl up and pretend I'm a hedgehog. Our geese left long ago, they would fly over every evening in the summer, from the river Thames, to the pond on the common, 3 miles away. We have the winter birds to look for now, soon the robin will be back, and will be able to see the cats through the naked hedges.

LTS