Little Tin Bird

I’ve been quite an inside person these last couple of days, working steadily on my blanket. I’ve done 260 squares now, can you believe it? I’m running low on some yarn colours that I’m hoping to restock on Saturday, and also my wrists started to ache so I’ve put my hooks out of reach for now.

To blow some cobwebs away this morning I went for a bit of a walk. Not a huge walk, more just a long stroll really. I walked a little way along where part of this used to go, which is where my mum and me went for our snowy walk a couple of weeks ago. It looked rather different today!

The sun was low and really bright so unfortunately I have my shadow in some of the photos.

I was pleased that it was so springlike out today. The sky was blue blue blue and there were so many birds flitting round the hedgerows and singing, it was lovely. There were quite a few buds on the trees as well, although the hedgerows and plants still looked shocked from all the snow.

It was lovely, really. Several times I just stopped, and stood still and listed to the quiet and to the birds. There was a tiny bit of traffic in the distance, and the sounds of the school playground that carried a little as well, but pretty much it was just me and the silence. I do love my own company when I’m out like that. (Most people get fed up with the amount of photos I take when we go out walking!) There was a really Good fresh smell too, the smell of damp, licheny trees that are beginning to warm in the sun, the smell of mud, growing and best of all just of general outside. I do love the Northamptonshire countryside, the fields and the hedges and the trees. I love the Yorkshire countryside as well, but I think the drystone walls that break it up can sometimes look a little hard and harsh on a landscape, wheres here there are fields and hedges and gates and stiles.

I like to stop and take in the detail on walks as well, some ivy

Brambles

Gorse

Hoofprints

Perhaps these were from this inquisitive fellow?

I’m not very confident with horses - I’m quite glad he was behind a fence, although he probably could have jumped it if he’d wanted!

Despite the springlike feeling, it is still wintry outside, as evidenced by the trees. I took about a thousand tree photos today, and whilst I love each of them I thought I’d spare you them. Unless you want a whole post dedicated to my tree photos? You only have to say the word!

I love this next photo loads … it’s as if the trees are holding branches, aww.

I did my A Level Environmental Science coursework on Lichens, and boy do I wish I’d had this camera then.

That’s Xanthoria, in case you were bothered. Lichen is made up of a fungus and an algae living in a symbiotic relationship … it’s really interesting actually but I won’t bore you any further ;-)

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