Dark Days

No - nothing bad has happened, I just can't get over how dark these November days are!

I just went out at a quarter to five to shut the chicken and geese in, and I had to come back for a torch!

Earlier Reuben and I went out for a long walk.  When we got out the back door I saw we had a lot of partridges visiting our chickens!

We went down to the drier and up the track to the top where we met a falconer who exercises his birds up there.  He told me that people have been using falcons for hunting for over 4,000 years.  He didn't seem to recognise me so I reminded him of when he brought his birds over to show George and Victoria years ago.  "Oh yes", he said.

When I got this picture out to scan it Jonathan said "that's not the same man".

Fair enough.

Anyway, we continued on to the trig point from where on a bright day you can see for miles and then on to Rogers Wood.  There used to be a pair of cottages up here and Diane in the village can remember she used to have to walk up there to pick up the children and walk them back down to school.  There was no electricity or running water so when they built the (what used to be) council houses at the bottom of  School Lane the family were moved there.  They hated it because it was too much like living in a town!

Alongside Rogers Wood I saw some deer tracks

 

so walked on towards Hashams to see if I could see them.  I did,  too far away to take a picture but I watched them run across the fields to the other side of School Lane.

 

We got to Hashams

and then Reuben and I walked back and down the track by our house - by now, about 3.30pm, it was starting to get a bit dim

So now we're back, not planning on going out tonight so all there is to do is what an awful lot of crafty bloggers do (I saw almost the same picture in Attic 24!) - sit in front of the fire and knit my blanket!