It’s almost 4 months since I last wrote on this site, so I figured I should do an update of some sort. Back in the day I might have added 100 posts since my last entry. Despite my best intentions at the start of the year, other things have got in the way and I’ve had little time, and even less reason, to come up with ideas to share on here.
The fact that I haven’t been posting is mainly good news. I’ve taken on a regular job as an editor which, while not full time, is taking up the bulk of my week and leaving me with little appetite to write more in my spare time.
Meanwhile, we moved house in the summer and it turns out I have an almost endless stream of distractions from my window. Here are some of the things which have kept me away from updating this blog. Every photo is taken from our windows or from the back garden.
The view is pretty good at any time,:
It’s particularly impressive at sunset…
and at sunrise, when the fields are sometimes covered by a light blanket of low mist.
Harvest time saw the farmer in the field late into the night.
Sometimes there are aerial distractions (the odd balloon lands at Grafham Water, just beyond the field).
And there are many planes. This is one of the few travelling slow enough for me to snap – I didn’t manage to catch the Vulcan bomber which flew overhead on its final public flight, or the fighter jets which occasionally pass within several hundred feet of the house.
But most of the aerial activity comes from the many birds who keep us entertained. For several weeks in the summer we had hundreds of swallows like this fellow hanging around near the house:
On most days a kestrel sits on the telephone lines, ready to swoop for its prey in the field…
.. although last week he was chased off in a scrap with a magpie:
Our favourites are the woodpeckers, which enjoy doing what they do on the telegraph pole:
We have been encouraging the blue tits and great tits to feel at home too:
And the night skies are fabulous. We had a great view of the Supermoon and the eclipse…
and we MAY have spotted the aurora borealis last night:
Given these distractions, on top of a ‘proper job’, it’s no surprise that the blog has fallen by the wayside. Perhaps the long winter nights will give me more time to update this site. But with the prospect of seeing owls, hedgehogs and who knows what else, I won’t make any promises.
19.10.15 Update: the Vulcan bomber flew past again, less than a week after publishing this post. I was prepared this time round.
