I do like sleeping, and consider myself quite expert at it. However, at this time of year it seems wrong to stay in bed while there’s so much to see, hear and smell outdoors. I’m very fortunate to be able to be able to go on walks in the countryside without any advance planning (other than, perhaps, making sure the relevant batteries are charged and letting other members of the family know I might be out early) and I’ve been taking advantage of this recently.

Last weekend I watched a beautiful sunrise, saw a kingfisher close up (it perched for a moment on the handrail of the footbridge where I had been standing for nearly an hour) and watched a reed warbler ferrying food to a nest hidden in a bank of nettles.

I’d listened to a cuckoo calling down by the sewage works. I do wonder what it is like for the bird in whose nest the cuckoos lay their eggs. Do they just accept that they have an unusually large infant on their hands? Are they proud of how quickly it grows? Here’s a short video of a misty Thame valley with a cuckoo calling:

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPyJUrH8VeN3elG5wLvNjRZcL3kNJZgGnkuwEJL

I also had a chance to test my athletic skills as a small herd of agitated cows with their calves appeared out of the thick mist and surrounded me. Maybe they were just curious, but I wasn’t going to hang around to find out. A short canter to the nearest fence was followed by a leap of the sort that I think I used to do in PE lessons at school – it was meant to be an elegant vault but became an ungainly collision with the top rail of the fence and a heavy landing on the other side.

This morning, the sky was cloudless and there was only a little mist rising off the river and off the sheep.

A kingfisher put in an appearance, approaching me from behind, flying over my shoulder and disappearing about two seconds later. On the return leg, I paused by the grove of ash trees below Cowley Farm and enjoyed the way the birdsong was bouncing off the tall straight trunks.

I was treated to a good view of a cuckoo calling as it flew over Nether Winchendon, and I was pleased to see a barn owl out hunting, having not seen one for a couple of months.

Rather than going on with a tedious list of what I saw, pictures can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ASxEdrkBY4MAapuy6

I returned home in time to eat some delicious cilbir cooked by my son – poached eggs on a layer of yogurt with spicy butter and garlic, mopped up with freshly baked bread topped with nigella seeds. I am spoilt, the sun is still blazing outside as I type this, and I have a feeling that I might just doze off this afternoon.