Best foot forward

We used to see sparrows all the time, so much so that I rather took them for granted.  Nowadays they're still around, but certainly in reduced numbers and sadly not in our garden.  While they are just another little brown job, the female's combination of grey and warm brown colours seems much smarter when you can get to look at it closely.

This is another shot taken with the teleconverter on the end of the big lens, but handheld.  The poor light has meant my pushing the ISO quite a bit and this is probably the edge of what I would have considered useable.  The combination of the de-noising and sharpening processes is not perfect although the end result is surprisingly acceptable.

It's one of those days in November when it constantly feels as though the sun hasn't come up yet.  Still I've been baking a Christmas Cake this morning, so the house is full of that pleasant combination of spices and citrus, with perhaps a little of the armagnac that the dried fruit has been soaking in overnight.