A change of tempo and of expectation too

      Well, all the family plans for Christmas and the New Year have sailed out of the window to that Valhalla where failed plans go, mind you it must be pretty full in there with all of the cancelled plans. Never mind though we've decided we're lucky, we live in a lovely place where we can walk our terriers in peace and we don't even have to see anyone if we don't want to and that works for me.

      The walk with Barney and Lucie this morning was, as always, a solitary one just me and the two terriers enjoying the frost and the sunshine accompanied by noisy Fieldfares and Redwings feasting in the orchard. The birds were scoffing the windfalls and the last of the apples on the trees, when the orchard is stripped bare they'll move on but at the moment there is a real focus on feeding and clearing the fruit.

      The really absorbing sight was the colours of winter. The frost, the reeds, the dead plants doing their own flower arranging and the last of the fruit on the trees, the apples are Golden Delicious and if your fillings will take the shock of icy fruit they're worth a bite. A peaceful walk and an hour spent enjoying quiet and the light and colours of midwinter, it was frosty but not 'earth as hard as iron' frosty.

Enjoy your Christmas and have a happy and healthy New Year but above all stay safe.