Monthly Archives: November 2018

It looks quite nice up in the Cotswolds, doesn’t it? It wasn’t nice. At all. I gave up and came home about eight hours ago, and I still haven’t properly warmed up. But, you know, self-inflicted wound and all that. … Continued

“I like that,” said R, peering over my shoulder when he brought me a glass of wine this evening. “It looks like a book illustration.” I’d rather you kept this to yourselves, because I don’t want him getting complacent, but … Continued

My second thought on seeing mallard lurve happening on the Avon this morning (after I wish they were closer, so I could get better photos) was that it surely can’t be the right time of year for this sort of … Continued

As forecast, the weather is horrible today, so I’ve been trying to clear some of the backlogged piles of admin paperwork off my desk – properly, rather than by simply filing them vertically in the handy receptacle that lives next … Continued

It seems strange to have driven all the way to the Cotswold Water Park today, and then to be posting a photo of a swan, but this was the nicest light I found all afternoon, and the only thing that … Continued

When I arrived at the owl field today the lane was strangely quiet – I think that some of the usual suspects have deserted Gloucestershire for Somerset, where short-eared owls are rumoured to be showing well at Steart – and … Continued

I hate Black Friday. I hate it with a vicious, anti-capitalist passion. I hate the emails I get from every company I’ve ever dealt with, offering me 10/15/20% off everything from garden statuary, through DVDs, to vitamins; and I especially … Continued

It was pure luck that I caught the exact moment when this tufted duck bobbed back up to the surface of the river – it’s almost impossible to judge where they’re going to surface, because they’re champion divers, and the … Continued

The weather forecast today said to expect a mixture of sun and cloud. It neglected to mention that the cloud would reach all the way down to the ground, and the sun would present only occasionally as a vague area … Continued

It being a fairly dour day, R and I finally got round to overcoming our usual inertia, and doing something we’ve talked about for a while: we took a trip over to Compton Verney and bought an annual membership. The … Continued