Stretching...

It was time for our routine computer servicing this morning. Solomon came with a new keyboard for Ben's laptop, as it had been doused in pineapple juice during the festive period! Fortunately all seems to be well now, and it wasn't too expensive.

I feel virtuous having backed up both my photographs and Lightroom catalogue on to our portable hard drive. This involved some fiddling, as I realised the backup programme hadn't been set up to copy the right folder, and so had to adjust it.

After all that I decided a brisk walk was in order, and headed off to Old Sulehay with the dogs. As I drove up there was a large flock of fieldfares drinking from a roadside puddle, but they flew off as soon as I parked the car.

It was a glorious sunny day, with hardly any wind, and although the site looked quite wintry, there were a few hopeful signs of spring: young hazel catkins, the first primrose leaves unfurling, snowdrop buds and a greater spotted woodpecker drumming, the first of the year.

The recent rain has at last had a noticeable effect, and the woodland paths were muddy for the first time in months. The rain has also freshened all the mosses, which were surprisingly colourful. In the wood there were sheets of swan's-neck thyme-moss whilst in the quarry one of the most obvious species was sand-hill screw-moss, each plant like a cheerful little yellow star.

I really didn't know what to blip today, just feeling indecisive! Other close contenders were this gnarled lichen-covered branch and the perfectly white trunks of the silver birches against a perfect blue sky. My chosen blip is one of my favourite horse-chestnut trees, which seems to reach up to the sky, the branching pattern a characteristic natural motif, recurring at many different scales.