Monday 28 December
Today started slowly. An easy morning. I took Stan to meet his girlfriend so they could do a cross-country walk, being in Tier 4 there’s not much else allowed. Then, shortly after I returned the rest of us went on a dog walk ourselves. We met up with them both half way round.
The seagull was with us again, as usual. The sky seemed animated by birds today, The hedgerows too were purring with birdsong. Robins were full of themselves, the ultimate territorial bird, we must have seen half a dozen different birds as we walked from patch to patch. The blackbirds too, females in particular, were swooping from tree to tree, calling there typical warning sound to others; “Trespassers are coming.” At times it looked and sounded more like spring than winter.
Even the bright sunshine was doing it’s bit to deceive, but the bitter wind on our cheeks and fingers let the rest down. And it was the weather that brought us back down to earth with a bump later in the day. Remaining cold and bright up until the end of the afternoon, when a thick fog descended in a matter of minutes. Away from the coast, this only tends to happen in the colder months.
I felt tired today, not weary from anything in particular, just an accumulation of things. An unshiftable heavy cold, the pandemic and its latest rise with the new variant, brexit (I refuse to give it an initial capital letter status), work stresses (past and impending), family worries. These few days between Christmas and New Year are arguably the best as none of them have anything riding on them; nothing to prepare or sort out. But this year, they give time to spend with my thoughts (the above).
I know there’s always a risk of over-thinking stuff, especially stuff that hasn’t happened yet. But it’s very difficult to ignore it, these are big things.
And yet, I know everything will be alright in the end. Even though I know ‘the end’ never actually ever comes. I know it will be ok because I have people around me who I love, and who love me. And I have Mabel. This past month or so, we have habitually sat together on the sofa before I head off to bed. Very often with me writing my blog post. It gives me time for Mabel and I to chew over the day, consider what’s going on and what tomorrow may bring.
The Bald Birder 