I'll never make a wildlife photographer. The birds are so timid they seem to know when I'm looking at them even when I'm behind double glazing and sitting really still, but I do like trying.

After three Christmas Concerts, several trips into the Big(er) Town for pressies, and four trips to the Post Office with parcels, I still hadn't really got the Christmas spirit until this morning when I gave the birds their breakfast and sat watching them enjoying their peanuts. Suddenly I felt all warm, full of goodwill and in a mood to enjoy being with people - in short I felt how we're supposed to feel, Christian, Pagan, pantheist or whatever, on this mid-winter festival day.

It may have had something to do with not being responsible for the cooking.