Robin Pays a Visit

Minus eleven here in Somero this morning, but the skies are clear and it somehow feels as though spring is on the way even though it is still January. Although the winters are dark here in Finland, this is the time of the year when you feel the days getting longer as each day passes, especially when it is bright as it is today.

We have been watching the final of the Austalian Open between Nadal and Djokovich on Eurosport, and it's odd to think that it is already evening in Melbourne and they are playing in temperatures of +33!  I was taking a break from the tennis and sitting at the kitchen table with the boys watching the birds when I had the fortune to spot a robin...the first I have seen in our garden. I managed to run and get the camera for this shot just before he flew away. 

We have lit a fire to keep the house warm and I can see from the chimneys that most of our neighbours have done the same. It is very comforting to sit by a log fire when you can see the snow on the trees outside. There is still no sign of Akseli, (apart from the alleged sighting yesterday...although I think it may have been a crow that Frédéric saw).  I have cleared a path for him just in case  in the back garden leading from the trees to the bird house (the squirrel I mean, not Frédéric). There is about twenty centimetres of snow on the ground at the moment, so I am hoping (perhaps naively) that Akseli will see the path and start to visit again. There were certainly some tracks in the snow a couple of days ago starting from the bottom of the trees, so either Akseli has been around or we have rabbits living in the branches. Fingers crossed!