End of January

It's been cold and grey in the main, but some days have had that odd quality of light which suggests spring and on Tuesday there was an extraordinary sunset, gold and pink and lilac: I remember similar pink-gold evening skies in Hong Kong, but such an intensity of colour is unusual here.

We've made a number of visits to the Bird Reserve this week. Our walk on Tuesday saw us circled by a pair of swans, flying round and round with huge slow strokes of their wings. There are flocks of them out o...