the great outdoors

My lunchtime walk was through and around the village today as I'm working from home. Such warmth in the sun, and a lot of NOISE from geese, swans, blackbirds scrabbling in the brush for twigs for their nests, woofing hunting dogs as I wander by their territory.

I walked down to the lake, still frozen apart from the corner where the flow is fastest, there were several birds resting there in the sunshine. The woods are full of ancient pale yellow grass and it's squishy underfoot, nit a bug in sight yet but I guess they are in waiting.

Took some shots of piles of timber, flapping forestry markers and general landscape but eventually chose this one of one of my favourite homesteads, the old barn, the recently smartened up houses - and the all important birch tree in the foreground. Birches abound here, soon there will be (literally) clouds and piles of birch pollen gathering in drifts.

One of my colleagues is tapping Birch sap and selling it as a healthy drink, some of us freeze it for the winter time and one year we made wine from it - instead of water, it was very fresh in taste. There are a lot of benefits to living in the countryside and today I'm feeling very grateful.