Just Chewing The Fat

Squirrel had a close encounter with another girl at playgroup this morning.
No reason or provocation apparently (which surprises me).
Boy those girls play rough/fight dirty.

I took PD for a reasonable walk today between snow showers.
The Pond is a foul brown, silty colour at the moment due to the feeder stream being dredged/widened/dammed or something.

I got a shot of The Osslum Bird but I need a longer lens and better light to try and get a better one.

I was trying to work out what kind of wood this is but as it had been put through the chipper a short time before I saw the (very short) stump I am afraid I am stumped.
It is a bit of a shame really because that grain pattern is wonderful and I would have loved the opportunity to turn some of it (the colour would fade which is a bit of a shame, but I could have lived with that for the grain).

I was doing a touch of teaching with the studio lights at the camera club tonight and for a complete guesstimate at the manual settings for the camera against the (rather unusual) output settings on the flashes I think this turned out okay as a test shot .... apart from the reflections in the glasses of course - but that was sorted by the time the 'students' had a go (tilting the glasses a bit sorted that).

Driving home was interesting since there have been no ploughs or gritters out despite the fact that that have been snow showers all day and the predicted decent fall of lying snow had arrived. Not even the dual carriageway through the town or the bus routes had been touched.
Tomorrow is going to be carnage.
So much for Holyrood's promises that this situation would never happen again after 2010's disgraceful response to the heavy snow. This - so far - isn't even a heavy fall yet.
This idea of waiting until it has finished falling before going out and them only doing a few roads over and over and over again until the danger is from skidding on all the grit doesn't work!!!!!!!