Monday 5th January 2026

It seems to be getting colder.

So cold many plants are withdrawing moisture from their stems and look like they're dead. Alexanders and Borage especially.

I slept in to seven, and Jools had left for swimming at ten to six, so the house was warm and quiet.

Until the meowing started.

I get up, get dressed, and go down to make myself coffee, go out to fill up the feeders, so the birds will have something to eat with the ground as hard as iron.

We have had most corvids in the garden, except ravens, jays and choughs, but I did see a pair of choughs beside the road on Sunday morning coming back from the gym, near Walletts Court.

A corvid was different kind of sheen to its feathers, and ten there was the orange beak.

I passed one, and then a second. But no place to stop, nor had I my DSLR and big lens, so I drove on happy I had seen them again.

No snow here, but a deep hoar frost, and way too cold to go out for a walk.

There are tasks around the house, including having a shower, then preparing lunch, which was to be chicken and leek pie, roast potatoes and steamed veggies.

So, potatoes were peeled and left to soak for an hour. Then boiled before being allowed to steam dry. Only then plunged into red hot duck fat, basted and left to roast for half an hour before basting again.

When basted a third time after an hour, the pie went in the oven and the veggies set to steam.

So just half an hour later we sat down to eat, still bright in the early afternoon sunshine.

The potatoes were golden globes, crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. Perfect in other words.

After eating we rested, and the day began to fade as the sun sank in the west, away above the down on which Chez Jelltex sits.

Supper was a slice of pistachio panettone, with a fresh brew.

And that was that.

There was football in the evening, Leicester v WBA, but I went to bed at half time with the scores level at 1-1. Leicester scored a winner, apparently, in the 94th minutes, but I was sound asleep by then.