Awoken by the freezing cold, clear Spring night (literally 0 deg. C. (32 deg. F) in our area.
I misjudged the forecast for tonight (and haven't had heating on for many weeks now).
Off to rediscover an electric heated throw from a Winter storage cupboard (it has a timer control to see me through until dawn).
I don't like risking messing about making a hot water bottle when half-asleep - poor co-ordination this time of night - however, the throw should do well.instead.
In our area it looks like another 5 nights of 0 - 3 deg. C (Tuesday through to Saturday). I shall have to get better organised for those nights earlier in the evening with a hot water bottle.
As I thaw out a bit - I can hear an Owl calling from a tall, elderly, ash tree behind my neighbour's house.
I would say it is likely a Tawny Owl with it's quavering ‘hoo, hu-hooo’ advertising call (I didn't hear a reply call ...so that might be "Billy-No-Friends" for tonight at least). They are a little larger than a Barn Owl so it is quite a load call rippling out across the neighbourhood, spinneys and fields.
Something has now scared up a torpid-sounding reluctant pheasant - probably means a Fox is mooching about somewhere nearby - or an overreaction to a Deer stepping through the Spring Wheat (the other morning a male and a female Deer were stood still in a field like they thought if they stood still enough there would be a mythical cloak of invisibility...not the best stealth tactic when backlit by the arriving dawn!
At least the Pheasant is out in a field somewhere (as opposed to inelegantly crumping onto my roof this time).
Warm enough to yawn now - good-oh, an hour's snooze beckons before the Blackbird's Bandstand stridently strikes up, in earnest, for the day ahead.
