Decision

It was the dreariest of dreary days, and it was all I could do to drag myself out of bed this morning. Having done that, I couldn't decide whether or not to go out, and if I did, where I should go. In the end I fell back on the default of Stratford, and was lucky to catch this little Coal Tit in a yew tree in the deep gloom of Holy Trinity churchyard. Then I went for a riverside walk in the hope of ducks, but there were no Tufties passing through today. The Black Swan that's been beating up the locals and stealing their lunch for the past fortnight has also moved on, and I dare say that none of the other waterfowl are heartbroken about that.

By the time I came out of the coffee shop at not long after 3pm it was almost dark, town was emptying fast, and it felt as if we'd gone back a month to the depths of midwinter. So I compensated by going shopping - even though I'm not really into spending therapy - and emerged from Seasalt with one of those stretchy "handyband" things you can wear in a variety of interesting ways. I'm hoping that worn as a snood, but stretched up to cover my mouth and nose, it might allow me to go cold-weather birding without having to endure the neuralgic agony of sensitive teeth afterwards. If this doesn't work, I can always recoup the cost of the snood by robbing a couple of supermarkets.