This week saw the (admittedly commercial) unhappiest day of the year - the third Monday in January, when your pay packet has nearly run out, the weather is pants, the days aren't really noticeably longer and your waistline hasn't recovered from the Christmas and New Year festivities.
Bizarrely it didn't really affect us as being worse than any other day in January, even if it had been decreed Red for electricity purposes. Instead, it is the sameness of the days at this time of year that gets to me. In general (this year anyway), days are either cold, foggy, and uninspiring; bitingly cold and bright and faintly inspiring until I get too cold; or wet, muddy, mild, and annoying. Each type does have it's beauty however, and the wet weather on Friday lead to this rather arty shot, as I stood by the second pond, in the rain, listening for birds.
The foggy day before the rain started, we were in the One Acre Wood, felling future firewood, and I spotted this rather dramatic fungus on old, decaying wood.
As as a point of optimism, one of us trod on this cowslip that was attempting to flower today, so spring will happen in due course.
With the wet and warmer weather, the electricity spot prices are falling, so Red days are behind us. That means I can have the heater on in my office and work through the files from the trail cameras and start to load things on YouTube.
This week I focussed on the camera pointing up a well trodden path at the edge of the Meadow, lined by fruit trees on one side and a bank of brambles on the other. Some of that is being removed, but not all, as it is a good shelter (when contained) for birds and small mammals. There is a path we have punched through the bank of brambles on the left as you look up the hill. Many of the photos are limited, not least as it was in place during the shortest, darkest months, but it is always nice to see a pine marten posing!
The path is used from time to time by boar passing through on their way to do damage somewhere else. They may spend the day down in the marsh behind the plantation trees, or somewhere further afield. The big poplar plantation along the valley has now been felled, so they aren't there, but there are pockets of woodland not too far away. Family groups will roam quite long distances.
The deer find this point rather appealing as it gives them a few good exit routes and opportunities to keep an ear or an eye out for any predators (hunters in the main) that might be in the zone.
If you watch this next video closely, you will see there is a deer in the field next door as well!
There are birds, as you can see above, in this corner of the Meadow, and not just small brown types, but you do find larger things too. like this flock of female pheasants out for a stroll.
There will be more from the pheasants when I put up the videos from the next camera I brought in, which was placed in the new path to see if anything was using it, other than us. And I guess that means Spoiler Alert, the pheasants use it!
One of the benefits and comforts of mid-winter is a good log fire. We have an insert with heat exchangers to the upper rooms in the house, so when it gets going, it helps take the edge off the first floor. There is a nice fire downstairs now, so I think I will go and sit with it, rather than gazing at a computer screen!
Have a good week!
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