Having ended the old year with a surfeit of steak, R and I decided to begin the new one with some healthy exercise, so we went to Croome for a walk – down to the lake, along the river to the house, up to the Rotunda, and back through the shrubbery – that we bookended with a couple of cups of coffee, and only a very small quantity of cake. Some people might have missed out the cake altogether, and proclaimed a new start for the New Year, but I don’t believe in setting expectations that I have neither the will-power, nor frankly the desire, to live up to. In my book, cake represents at least one of the five food groups (the rest being covered by chocolate, cheese, and bacon), and this is the hill I will most likely die on.
The shrubbery at Croome contains a small bird hide, looking out over a clearing containing a group of feeders, and this afternoon the whole area was swarming with songbirds. There were several possible candidates for Bird of the Day, but this little Nuthatch trounced the opposition by posing so beautifully on a wooden bracket, right next to the hide. I love Nuthatches for the sense I always have that they’re looking at the world with a sardonically raised eyebrow – an attitude I fully endorse.
R: L2, C3, D14.
