Sunday 4 March

• The recent snow showed the benefits of living in the city if you wanted to get to work. I had no trouble getting in and home again, though colleagues who lived out of London had problems - trains being cancelled due to the weather forecast!
• The snow was dry so didn't make snowballs, which meant I couldn't use my saved feathers and acorns to make snow birds.
• I have two casserole dishes I use as wildlife water bowls. During cold weather, each morning I bring one into the conservatory to thaw and take the other out. Thursday and Friday morning there was still ice on the one left in over night.
• I try to keep a corner of the pond free from ice to release the gases. Thursday and Friday morning it was too thick to break. The thaw started over Friday night so Saturday afternoon I went out to see if was thin enough to make a hole. With difficulty I managed it. Then I saw a frog swimming under the ice so worked hard to removed a slab of ice and put in a forked stick in such a way I though it could use it to get out if it wanted - but it was still there in the pond today. The books say frogs don't hibernate at the bottom of ponds but I have suspected they do in my pond and this seems to prove it!
• Saw a crow building a nest this morning.