The pond froze for the first time earlier this week and today it snowed heavily. Although it looks wonderful, it means all the work being carried out on our garden at the moment has come to a halt.

The kingfisher has been a regular visitor to the pond for a few weeks now. He's been having some success down there and I often see him sitting where he is in this photo with a wriggling fish in his beak.

I thought I'd get a photo today as he won't be around soon, once the pond freezes over.

It's been cold enough overnight for us to get our first ice spike of the year. We don't get these often but it's always interesting to see how they form. Our bird path seems to have the perfect configuration.

See January 2020 and February and March 2017 for some other examples we've had.

It was time to move the common carder bees that had nested under a tarpaulin beside our patio (see diary entry from 11^th September). This area is going to be dug up in the next few weeks so we couldn't leave them there. I carefully lifted the nest and placed it in a cardboard box and stored it in our shed. I'll bring in out again in spring.

There were at least two bees in there (you can see one at the top left of the photo).