Sitting at home, outside, drinking our G&Ts, you must have your camera at the ready. There is the Heron visiting our neighbours’ pond. There it is sitting looking ungainly at the top of a tree. The greenfinches, constantly fighting, and the young bird being looked after by its parents. All of this in view while you are sipping your Gin and Tonic.
From the 25th April to the 6th Of May I took several pictures of the moon. On the 6th of May, there was a full moon, indeed a supermoon. The May full moon is 2020’s third and final full supermoon, and it’s also the third-closest, third-biggest and third-brightest full moon of 2020. All photographs were taken on a tripod, with a 2-second delay for the shutter. The exposure time was around 1/80 of second at f16 ish
The Cowslip flowers have been fabulous this year. They have been spreading into all areas of the garden. The less mowing is beginning to pay off. April was very sunny with very little rain.
We had our usual Christmas this year, complete with our countdown meals, all planned on a handy Excel Spreadsheet. One change was made, a meal was swapped around because the original was deemed too complicated for a Friday pub night.
Our Christmas Eve had Phil and Selina over for our usual cheese fondue. The fondue set is one of the few possessions I brought to the family, which still exists. The set must be more than 40 years old.
Christmas Day had Julian join us for our traditional Christmas Turkey lunch. (I cannot get them all to agree to a swap to a goose.) Nothing was forgotten, except the amount of gravy made was somewhat lacking, so there was no gravy in the sandwiches on subsequent days. Traditional Christmas pudding was on offer, with Jack Daniels Butter, along with Christmas Pudding Ice Cream,
Leftover food kept us going for a week in various reincarnations. No turkey curry, and somehow the bread sauce found its way to the back of the fridge and was not discovered for well over a week. (I think this deliberate on R’s part.)
New Christmas tree this year. Gone has the natural tree with falling needles, and now a metal and plastic affair which should see me out.
Selina had originally bought me the Michael Eavis and Emily Eavis “Glastonbury 50” book for Christmas. It would have been a brilliant choice. Unfortunately, I had already bought it back in November. R had not communicated this fact to Selina when she had asked if I had purchased any books recently. Luckily, Rosemary told me that Selina was enquiring about my book purchases, so I reminded her of “Glastonbury 50”. Quickly she phoned Selina, but it was too late; Selina could not cancel the order. No matter, it was passed on to Ravi, one of the friends whom I took to Glastonbury.
During Christmas Day, I read several tweets from Glastonbury fans who had received multiple copies of the book. Several with two copies and at least three had three copies of the book.
The day after Boxing Day, Jim G dropped by to give us two braces of Pheasant. The next day I breasted the Pheasant (simple do do, and let’s be frank, there is not much more on a Pheasant than the breasts). The remains were then cast out into the field for the Red Kites. Of course the Kites were no where to be seen. Some interest was initially shown by some Magpies and Rooks who gave the pheasants some exploratory pecks.
Eventually the Red Kites discovered them, and we had three different ones flying around. A Buzzard also found the Pheasant quite late on. (Only when I was looking at the pictures did I realise there was this interloper.) The Magpies and Rooks attempted to steal from the Buzzard and Kites. In one selection of photos you can see a Rook pulling the tail of a Kite, and then being chased off. The Rooks were a little more respectful of the Buzzard. Beautiful birds all of them, even the Rooks.
