Another post!

My blog posts are like buses, you wait for days for one to come alonga nd then suddenly you get 3 in one weekend!

I have just returned from another good walk with the dog. I reckon I walked about 5 miles along the towpath and explored some footpaths across the fields. Ended up sitting for a rest on my favourite style on a bridge over the canal with views across the hills. Sitting there and the sun was warm with the wind rustling the surrounding trees, the dog was lying down panting under my legs while I watched a little robin flitter about on the ground not more than a few feet in front of me. A pair of Long Tailed Tits were playing around in the trees next to me along with a Dunnock and just as I was about to leave a tiny Wren flitted onto a low branch in front. I walked back taking a more direct route, listening to a green woodpecker screeching in the distance, only to be disturbed by a pheasant noisily protesting as he flew off from the path in front of me. Almost back into Hinckley and I had to pause and watch a heron circling round looking for a good place to land and a kestrel working hard overhead to maintain a near motionless position from his vantage point above. I am sure if you look hard enough it's possible to see the hedges and copses beginning to turn green; certainly a close inspection reveals little buds beginning to form. My noisy neighbours, the swans, have returned and are asleep on the bank outside the boat as I type this. Ah well, back to the un-natural world of work tomorrow and for another 5 days there will be no time whatsoever to stop and stare and enjoy the things you find in your surroundings. A precious few moments enjoying solitude and peacefulness of the natural world around is like a weekly fix: deprived of it, and it's hard to think how one can survive another hectic week.

BTW, credit must go to the canalworld forum and one of its members for posting the picture above. It made me laugh as I wondered if this was the hi-tec. method of meteology the met. office actually use!?