It was a cold but bright morning, so R and I shaped ourselves, breakfasted quickly, and then went off to Croome for a walk. There’s a beautiful old plane tree close to the point at which the shrubbery walk reaches the lake, which I always stop to examine because it catches any early morning sunshine and sometimes offers the chance of a good bird photo, but today while I was scanning its branches I was distracted by a sudden kerfuffle in a nearby yew tree. I barely had time to register the foraging squirrel, swing up the camera, focus, and hit the shutter button, before it leapt upwards and disappeared. This isn’t perfectly in focus, but considering the amount of movement that was going on – of both squirrel and foliage – I’m reasonably satisfied with it.
I’ve spent the entire day singing Mozart and Purcell in my head, and wishing that we could repeat last night’s concert. This doesn’t always happen – in fact I’ve performed in a few concerts I actively try not to remember – so I’m taking it as another positive sign that the evening went well. I’m already looking forward to next season – the Omicron variant permitting.
