Diamonds are forever - shop 'til you drop

It hasn't been a particularly photogenic day, although the world of the back garden looked like many Christmas cards early this morning. According to a reliable source (builder), it was minus 6 celcius in Sidmouth this morning. It was too warm and cosy inside to venture out with the camera - I'm no Bruce Parry - so I stayed indoors and missed the opportunity. I thought I might make up for it in town this afternoon with the sun shining upon the Cathedral. Serves me right, but Exeter Cathedral Green is undergoing a major re-development and building works and scaffolding made it night on impossible to find a chink through which to get a decent picture.
You may be wondering about how the above title fits, but it's the final day of January and the month has been saving up the best 'til last. Philippa has been offered a job working with diamonds and I participated in the purchase of a kitchen tap (not to celebrate) this morning, and a wedding outfit this afternoon. There are so few plaes to purchase taps off the peg that I dreamed that 'Toys R Us' was really 'Taps R Us', as we sped past on our quest this morning. The plumber has been booked to refit the oozing tap at 8.00am tomorrow so there was an urgent need for shopping focus. What a contrast with diamonds, although I would argue that a functioning kitchen tap is probably of more value.

As for the wedding outfit, that was easy! Right down to the shoes. You'll get an actual picture in the wedding setting in due course. You are not going to get a picture of diamonds or a wedding outfkit here, but of the non-functioning kitchen tap in situ. Watch this space for the next instalment.

Avocets and Robins

These pictures should be videos of an Avocet amongst the many looking stunning on an icy Exe Estuary this morning, and a Robin singing its heart out high up in a hedge. They were reluctant to load (not the birds), so I may try later. I hope the replacements capture the mood of what has been a spectacularly sunny day - for January. I didn't know that I would encounter Avocets when I set off without binnoculars this morning, but the mud was plastered with them and plenty of other waders.

There were also loads of people about, including a boatload of Avocet watchers, a range of walking birders, a digi-scoper and the usual dog walkers. One insisted on repeatedly calling 'Freddie' whilst I was camcording, so if the Avocet clip ever makes this blog, the bird isn't called by that name.

It really is ice in the image on the left and above left which gives an idea of how cold it was yesterday, and particularly last night. The fire was burning brightly indoors and, as I seem to be doing with just about everything in my enthusiasm for January, I took a few photos in between playing Scramble on my i phone and watching The Flying Doctors on tv. I'll leave that image to your imagination, unless I get any special requests - which are always welcome. Well, tomorrow is the last day of this fine month and I will do my best to show it off to full advantage.

Looking out

A still January day had me in its grip. It is very cold and still and there was no excuse to say indoors. I ventured out to de-frost the bird baths; get in some coal; visit the garden to capture the mood in photographs; put kitchen waste in appropriate bin; drive to shop for provisions - all totalling about an hour. It hasn't been a dull day but without noticeable sunlight, it has felt like being frozen in time. I noticed that it was still light at 5.00pm, which means that Spring is on the way.

Images are such a straightforward way of capturing the day, although it is challenging having to choose just the one. I could allow myself the luxury of more than one per day, but I relish having to whittle it down to one. It's a pity that you can't hear the birds singing in the above trees, which they were, but I'll try capturing this in a video and see how it works. I photographed a buzzard in the tree, where it usually sits, right at the bottom of the garden but it was a long way off and too small to notice. There's a lot going on in the garden in January, and yesterday I looked out of a window and watched a little group of Long-tailed Tits. The day before, I watched a pretty fox with a whitish face, from one of the upstairs windows. Now that we have begun feeding the birds since getting back from Down Under, close to the house activities are getting back to normal. Great spotted woodpecker and nuthatch were both seen today.

Arrived home a week ago today

I'm writing this at the end of the day, rather than during events or soon after. A week after arriving home from Oz, jet lag still affects evening energy levels. As I'm writing this in the evening, any thoughts and events relating to the day are shrouded in a mist - unlike the picture to the left, which I took on a bracing walk to Topsham this morning.

I took many pictures of water-related scenes, boats and skies. As I have a tendency to favour photographs which feature brightly coloured artefacts, this was an obvious choice. This time, skies and watery scenes couldn't complete. The temperatures have dropped and it has been a very cold day, leading to the purchase of more layers of warm cycling clothes and a flourescent cycling jacket. The general plan is that all the walking will naturally lead to cycling - maybe next week. A jogger was hit by a car yesterday, just up the road, near the garage.

When we returned from yesterday's outing, the main road was closed and we guessed it was the result of an accident, due to the helicopter overhead and the sirens heard a bit later. Jogging is such an apparently innocent occupation that it is at odds with such a horrible event. As anyone who has cylced or walked along this stretch knows, it isn't designed or suitable for pedestrians and vehicles. I'm going to need the flourescent jackiet.

The Warren Walk

The colours may not be particularly dramatic, but today's coastal walk was as awe inspiring as
those previously mentioned Tierra del Fuego skies. This is the coastal headland between the Yealm Estuary and the English Channel - to be precise. It's known as 'the Warren Walk' because the coastal strip was once associated with farming rabbits. The path mostly follows part of a nine mile track which was created for horse-drawn carriages by Lord Revelstoke in the nineteenth century. Apparently, those partaking of the ride and enjoying the scenery partook of refreshments at Warren Cottage - which I should have photographed as it stands alone at the top of the cliffs and has stunning views, a taster of which can be seen in my hastily snapped picture.
It was very cold and there was a lot going on at the time - talking; walking; making adjustments to many layers of clothing (me); opening the gate for the lone but grateful cyclist; marvelling at the spectacular scenery, and of course, in between times, taking photographs. Of all the beautiful settings in the world, coastal paths are my favourite, followed on this occasion by a gratefully received egg and chips in the pub by a roaring fire. Another plus for the month of January.

January

The sky wasn't half as interesting in the picture I took of the Exe Estuary this morning, so I thought I'd swap it with this one taken by me in Tierra del Fuego at about the same time last year - in January. Abiding images are of vast windswept landscapes, and particularly the awesomeness of the skies. They were so photogenic that you could just point a camera skyward and click, without looking.

January is the theme of today's writing because, as my birthday month, I've always felt the need to stick up for it. According to something I read in The Times this morning, one of the days this week is supposedly 'the most depressing day of the year'. I didn't feel the need to remember which one, and instead decided to prove otherwise. Of course, it helps that it's been mostly bright and sunnyish since last Friday when I arrived back in glorious Devon, following a six week visit to Australia. I'm not name dropping on purpose (S. America, Australia), but it's a fact which contributes towards my determination to defend the negative connotations attached to January.

On the sixteenth of the said month I became a year older, hence the 'post' in the above midlife crisis title. From what I read in the papers, listen to on the radio, watch on the tv, etc., I feel sure that I am well past those ages which qualify as 'mid-life'. Not that I necessarily would, but I can't emphathise with the latest fad focused on 'looking good at fifty', as I am truly in the twilight of that particular decade. I had to get the twilight word in somewhere, as I came close to using it in the title for this blog, but chickened out at the last minute.