On my recent walk that took me past Hadley Cemetery I noticed a sign on the gates that said it was a site that contained Commonwealth War Graves. On that occasion I didn’t have enough time to investigate so I planned to return in the next few days.

When I posted about my walk I learned that the grandparents of a local fellow #walk1000miles participant were buried there. Lockdown restrictions have meant that he has not been able to visit their memorial site so I offered to take a photo of the memorial stone when I returned.

Today, when I retraced my steps I was hoping for sunshine. The sun had other ideas and left its hat off until I got home after my enjoyable local walk.

First thing this morning I went in to the upstairs room where my computer is situated. I needed to charge my mobile phone.

Movement in the garden distracted me. The light rain had enticed my garden birds out of their perching places. My upstairs retreat is the perfect place to watch and enjoy my garden birds. I got distracted from anything else I should have or thought I should have been doing…

Initially a blue tit family and a couple of great tits were flitting around nearby trees and branches, occasionally flying towards my window and roof above and below (the attraction was water in the gutters). They were joined by three blackbirds on my lawn and a squirrel on the fence near to my house.

The squirrel kept bobbing into next doors garden and returning to the fence with a nut which he proceeded to nibble. At one point as he was running backwards and forwards on the fence. His chaotic run coincided with a blackbird that was about to land on the fence. The blackbird had quick reactions and flew on by. The squirrel was quite unnerved and started flicked its tail around in an alarmed way.

A robin briefly visited followed by a flock of around 12 sparrows that were devouring some tasty feast from my lawn and the edge of my path. The three blackbirds came back to enjoy the tasty feast!

Some time later after a few household jobs I set off for a walk around my local pathways.

In the woods I encountered an unexpected ‘no go’ area. A tree was being felled.

By the pools I was wondering if I would see the cormorant which I had seen in profile flying overhead on my last visit.

The cormorant was absent, instead I saw a heron, firstly flying off. A wonderful sight although I was regretting that I had disturbed him before I even saw him. I was able to follow his journey around the pools until someone got in his comfort zone and he flew off beyond the trees.