Spring is a -comin'.......

This rambling rose seems to think it is time to start budding - what a welcome sight, but surely a little premature?  However, the first of February means we have got January out of the way and are a month closer to spring.  It cannot come soon enough for me - I really hate winter now that I live in a somewhat isolated rural area surrounded by muddy fields and sheep.  
This week I have seen more interesting birds in our garden than for the past several years, such as Woodpecker; Bullfinch; Greenfinch and Siskin.  I just wish when they built this house - over 150 years ago - they had thought to place it differently so that the garden was actually at the back of the house and not the side so that we could see the bird feeders and the flowers in spring and summer.  I suppose it was built as a farmhouse, as it is obvious that what is now our garden was once a pasture.  I mention this as it is the reason why it is so difficult to get pictures of birds at the feeders unless I go outside and then, of course, they fly away.