Misty mornings and supermarket trolley’s

The good thing about this week is the longer mornings, for a short while at least I hate waking up in the dark of winter. The shorter nights also means you have to make the most of the shorter periods of daylight to do what you have to do, walk the dogs, estate work just getting a breath of fresh air it is all to limiting in the winter months, I hate it!

I definitly support the Lighter Later Campaign/Lighter Later Bill and the growing call for us all to put our clocks back GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in the summer so we all get more daylight, all we need to do now is sort the god dam awful British weather out.

It has been reasonably mild of recent with the rain and wind punctuated by some decent sunny days. This has allowed some of the late autumns finest highlights to be witnessed. Mist in the morning can be truly breath taking especially as it just starts to clear, the first rays of sunlight highlight the dew and the cobwebs that are abundant in the autumn.

Low lying damp or coastal areas always produce the best, I was heading north on the A1 over the Wansbeck at the weekend and the whole of the river channel was cloaked in a misty shroud. Mist hung in clumps like giant unearthly sheep in the corner of fields and flocks of fieldfare were flirting with the hedgerows.

Just as was loosing myself in this early morning heaven I had to brake harshly to avoid a couple of roe deer hurdling the single carriage way near Priest’s bridge, dozzy gits!!! that was a close one but I wouldn’t have knocked a bit of venison for Sunday lunch had it come my way. On a serious note they can cause some considerable amount of damage to motorists every year let alone themselves, and I don’t think many people believe there are as many in the countryside as there is.

The roe deer is a very common animal indeed and even where I live it is a visitor to my neighbours, last winter playing havoc with Mrs Smiths herbaceous border. Time we brought some lynx back into play is my suggestion but that again is another story, why can’t we?

I was off a little further a field up to an area around Kimmer Lough in Northumberland to see if the roe’s larger cousin was strutting his stuff. I wondered if there was still any of the ‘legendary’ red deer still hanging around. I was sent a photo a few years back but have heard (no pun meant) nothing since. I didn’t see or hear anything but I had a good jaunt, the dogs really working hard for their supper, to which they remined me I had to get some dog food.

Swinging by a well known supermarket in central Ashington witha tip off on my phone I was greeted with a late t-time surprise in the shape of a sizable flock of those exquisite Siberian visitors, the waxwing. Apparently a large influx of the birds has been incoming over the past week down the whole of the east coast. These are sure fire sign that the winter is nearly here as their numbers rise with the chill factor. The colder it is in the north the more birds descend for better feeding further south. Not sure what that says for our coming winter, we will have to wait and see, meanwhile im going to enjoy the waxwings while they are here. It was very drab the day I saw these waxwings so the images are poor one day I'll catch some in the sun.