For 35 year the RSPB (Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds, the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe) has been asking its members and the wider public to count the birds, and the various species of birds, they see in their gardens or local parks. It usually takes place over a weekend in January and the amount of support is phenomenal making it a serious census of the state of British bird life (and indirectly the health of our wildlife in general).
Inevitably over time and with the reduction in habitat, subtle changes in climate and other factors some species have declined, although some have thrived over recent years. Last year it was the common sparrow and the starling that are particular cause for concern. Both of these used to be numerous to the point they seemed to swamp the other birds. And yet they have declined over 80% and 60% respectively over the last 10 years.
Anyway we love our birds, and Mary is a diligent bird feeder ensuring there is food for the birds even on occasions when we are away (thank you friends and neighbours). This year we have counted Robin, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Blackbird, Blackcap, Wren, Collared Dove, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, and Wood Pigeon in our count. Not around today when we counted, we know we get swifts (in summer), Crows, Rooks and Jackdaws, and there are Kites, Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and even Ravens who nest in the gorge and swoop over, and then seagulls (not quite "garden birds") creeping in from the coast. We also get the occasional Heron passing by (they like to check out the ponds in the gorge valley below us). Sadly we no longer seem to have an Thrushes. Just a few miles away Mary's mum (another passionate bird lover) has most of the above and also beautiful Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Long-tailed Tit and even the occasional Woodpecker. So all-in all not bad - and if anyone staying has an interest they are more than welcome to take time in the garden to see what they see.

Somerset has hit the headlines this month, but not for the best of reasons. Like some other parts of the UK the wet winter to date has saturated the land and the flat low-lying "Somerset Levels" have had enough and flooded. Of course in one respect this is not unusual - the Levels are largely reclaimed from marsh and sea centuries ago, a little like the Dutch reclaimed almost one quarter of their land area. So in wet times the drainage of the land via rhynes (a network of deep ditches) to rivers and so to the sea, gets overwhelmed. This time it seems worse, partly because the rain keeps coming to top things up, partly because the dredged main waterways are not well dredged, and partly because once-in-one-hundred-year events are happening every several years.
The Levels are not one uniform area, and are broken in to swathes of flat land between hill ridges, from north to south: the Mendips, Poldens, Quantocks and Blackdowns. The worst area for the flooding is happening in mid and south Somerset and for those affected - some of the more remote hamlets and villages in South Somerset - it is no joke after weeks being cut-off (at best) or flooded (at worst). 
Luckily and thankfully this is not affecting our area in the north of the county; certainly we can see some flooded pastures around us and some of the rhynes in places are full and almost overflowing small lanes. But this is not at all worrisome. Cheddar itself is on the south scarp of the Mendips and Gorge View house and the cottage are helpfully a little up from the levels which start on the edge of the village. Being on a fertile flat limestone shelf 25m above sea-level certainly makes us feel blessed.
With luck the persistent rain that the whole of the UK has been experiencing will ease up and the flooding will abate soon. In our view this frequency of extremes of weather (wet, dry, hot, cold, windy) is a clear result of the very beginnings of climate change - largely man-made with the extraordinary and growing amounts of carbon we are collectively pumping in to the atmosphere to levels not seen in human times. So it reinforces our efforts to live as lightly on the land as is reasonable and certainly if you come and stay at Gorge View Cottage you are implicitly having a low- (or lower-) carbon vacation.