Too orangey for crows

The title of this shot comes from those cartoon film adverts that were shown at cinemas, advertising Kia Ora, a drink that may have had some component of orange included, it was pretty chemical tasting so the Jury is still out on just how much orange juice was actually included.  

Lockdown continues, as does what has turned out to be my New Year's exercise regime.  Another 10k over the fields locally today, in what was fine, albeit cold, weather.  Not cold in the same terms as the rest of the country but certainly only a little above freezing.  

Inevitably after the recent rain it was very, very muddy.  But in a way, I am starting to realise that the mud is a good thing. The number of walkers who are prepared to put up with the process of wading and sliding their way across the fields is definitely reduced, and just at the moment that is very welcome indeed.  The numbers of cases locally are still increasing quite quickly so it definitely pays to be sensible.

Unfortunately Dad's care home has a number of cases of Covid.  There have been a number false alerts before from the tests before that have worried us, but this time it did sound rather more serious.  At the moment Dad is alright and they are trying to get their residents to isolate in their rooms and to improve the ventilation.  If you've ever visited a care home, you will know that they are normally pretty kept pretty warm, so opening the windows in January brings all sorts of problems.

Frustratingly on my walk I missed the shot of the heron in flight.  I spooked it as a I moved towards it, too proud to crouch down and creep towards it you see.  So instead I've gone for this shot of the sun going down as I turned for home.  I have however given you an extra you lucky things. It was taken at ISO 2000 so its a little noisier than I would prefer. If the Summer staple is a bee on a flower, surely the Winter staple is a bird on a twig?  In this case I believe it is what the Romans would call a "turdus iliacus" (I kid you not).  I was never a fan of Latin, give me common old Anglo Saxon every day of the week.  "Redwing" is soooo much better! Turdus is the generic name for the thrush family which includes blackbirds.  I feel they deserve better!