Cold mornings

 A cold morning still makes me excited the way it did when I was a child. Hopeful for ice to run and slide on along the way to school and a playground like a huge skating rink. Such simple pleasures and what joy to see the pavement puddles iced over, crackled and patterned with trapped air bubbles. Smooth ice for school shoes to take their first ice dance of the year.
These days there's no school run, so we look out in the cold garden over breakfast at the birds who are having their breakfast and looking into the kitchen at us. We are outnumbered.
 This blackbird is giving us the 'look'. Come out and feed us please. We oblige and tread carefully out into the garden, past iced over buckets and across a slightly white and crunchy grass lawn to the wooden bird table to refill with all we have at the moment, some seed. Must make some bird cake tomorrow for they need the fat to keep plump and full feathered over the cold winter months. This bird looks a little bit grumpy. Perhaps he was expecting bird cake today. 
I'll report back with my bird cake making over the weekend and hopefully there will be some pleased garden birdies on Monday.

Image Credit: Winter bird feeder Shutterstock