The cold snap birds snow ice and teasel

So its Monday night and I have actually sat down and got back to this blog. There is a motivation thing going on here. It may well be the time of year and that general lethargy that comes with winter and the cold. Yes, it has been cold here in the UK for the last week or two. It has been as cold, not just for a few days but really since before Christmas. I know that for any one who is used to let us say "continental winters" it is a mere blip. but I don't remember it being this cold for this long at all..

I have got lots of pictures of the snow and ice this being the ones with most snow. I took them last Wednesday in Merrions Wood in Walsall which is just up the road from where I live. I had the afternoon off and my children were off school. The snow was still on the trees as you can see from the picture and every so often as the wind caught it, would fall to the floor making us jump.

The girls love playing in the wood and run and jump around. They make secret dens and balance along the fallen trees that lie around.

The snow had just fallen and it was still cold.

At one end of Merrions Wood is the church of St Margaret's. A place I have been past countless times on our way to / from the M6 or Birmingham. I just have never stopped and been in or walked around. I have seen funerals and weddings and and just general stuff on a Sunday morning. It is a place I go past. Or was until now I suppose. Providing one of the anchor points of the wood it is there when we walk. Usually keeping its distance. I have become more aware of it recently. It sits surrounded by trees and with the snow looks quite a picture. Yes I know in this picture it is half hidden by the trees but that to me is part of the mystery. I like it anyway.

I have managed to get out on most days over the last week and walk around in Shrewsbury. The drop in temperature last week was felt in our office as the boiler broke leaving us with a couple of gas heaters. By Friday the River was beginning to freeze. I took this looking back upstream towards the English bridge. I took this early afternoon, with the ice floes on the river giving a definite Arctic feel to the scene.

The black headed gulls seem a little unsure what to do. Though this one has managed to hitch a ride.

So where else have I managed to go. The RSPB Sandwell Valley on the south side of Forge Mill Lake

I got out on Saturday afternoon, the place was quiet, with the blanket of snow muffling the noise. As the lake had largely frozen over most of the ducks geese gulls etc were concentrated in one small area of open water around the slipway on the Forge Mill Farm section. The lapwings that I had seen on the ice the week before seem to have moved on.

I did however get a different picture of a teasel. Well apart from stating the obvious there is not much more to say.

I think this one works on more than just the picture of snow

The more I look at this one the more I like it


OK time for bed