Is It Winter?

I thought it was supposed to be winter, and then I found this large (2") caterpillar munching away on the artichoke plant. I'm not too sure what species it is, the nearest I can come up with is a lappet moth. Once I had taken a mug shot I moved it to the field before it ate all of the artichoke which is already looking rather ragged. We've had some heavy showers today but it stayed dry through the morning giving me time to do some gardening. I was able to clear a satisfying amount of grass roots before time stopped play and I had to get ready for work. I would much have preferred to stay grubbing about on the hillside but that doesn't pay the bills.
It was fairly wet during the afternoon and then began to rain heavily on my way home. I had been thinking about doing some more gardening as it was still light but not in those conditions. I'm not that keen. Driving down into our valley the clouds that I could hardly see the other side of the valley.

I took some lazy photos (through the car window), on my way down the drive. There is a buzzard sitting on the left of the middle of the tree and a whole flock of smaller birds, starlings/finches? sitting above it. The little birds flew off when I stopped but the buzzard stayed put as there was a whole field between us.