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Yesterday, I entered one of the outer circles of retail hell. My son had to go to work, so I rashly said I'd spend the morning in Bath so he'd have company on the drive. The Victoria Art Gallery was an oasis of civilisation and peace - but the shops? I think I needed reminding just how horrible city centres are: and got it in spades. Not only were the shops full of cut-price foreign tat that I don't need and can't afford, but also the pavements were heaving with people bent on elbowing their way to the very same tat in front of the man or woman next to them. Truly awful.

So, how delightful on my return to pop down to Lyme Regis, and snap this solitary window shopper and admire the Christmas lights!

On Saturday morning, head full of vague thoughts about my impending last-minute grocery shop, I noticed a soft rose-pink glow suffusing the pearly grey clouds in the south-east. As I drove through Lyme Regis, I saw the midwinter sun rising over the sea - a dark pink segment balanced on the horizon. A few minutes later, it had slipped behind the clouds again and all was grey.

You can see why people take such things as a portent of good things to come in the darkest days of winter.

Uplyme Parish Church and village seen on a frosty morning from the slopes of Horseman's Hill

In this cold snap, I have been putting out extra food for the garden birds: mostly dunnocks, robins, blackbirds, chaffinches and tits.

They have porridge oats and raisins, plus peanuts and sunflower kernels in feeders, every morning; and if it's very cold like today, a second helping of oats at dusk.

'My' two cock pheasants have poultry corn - in fact, if they see me through the futility room window, they come running over and stand just under the window, heads cocked. They know I'll give in and throw out some more corn for them!

Yesterday, I made two fat feeders out of small tinned-tomato cans. I punched a hole in the bottom to tie on a string, then melted some of the dripping and stirred in lots of oats to make a sort of fat flapjack. Pressed into the tins and left to cool, it makes a good feeder to hang in the branches. The tits can hang upside down, and the other birds can perch underneath to get at the contents.

More high-calorie fuel for the birds, and a way to recycle the fat without clogging the drains or making a mess in the bin. Excellent! The only drawback was the 15 minutes it took to clean up the worktops and wash the ghastly remains from the pyrex jug I made the mixture in. Oh well...

The five trees shown at the top of the page are now four and a bit. In the very stormy weather last night, the dead one (number four from the left) blew down to a 3m stump, blocking our way to the road. So instead of having fun in blogland, today, I have mostly been picking up wood and having a bonfire. Still, we'll have plenty of firewood for next year...

Almost time for a hot bath to ease the inevitable aches, thank goodness!