blurry

This picture didn't quite come out right but I love the effect with the bluey softness.

We walked the new ponds and woodland trails at Tophill Low Nature Reserve, it was cold and bleak with an intermittent watery sunshine but we saw lots of little birds in amongst the pine trees. Goldfinch and chaffinch flitted here and there and the happily singing bluetits worked the branches.
Squirrels revelled in their playful games, running up and down the tree trunks with fiendish glee and pheasants pecked in the undergrowth disappearing in a flash as soon as they saw us.
Snowdrops adorned the underbrush and myriads of small flies seemed to twinkle as they gathered in the warm sunlight shafts above the water.
Crispy dried flowerheads looked like spidery mutants against the blue sky and the ponds reflected their bankside trees.
A pair of waterhens swam lazily, occasionally dipping their heads into the water to feed.
There's a new hide too which smelled wonderful...that just sawn resin smell of new wood...and warm and welcoming in the cold wind.

Home

Peter Jaconelli of the famous icecream family always said Scarborough Bay reminded him of the Bay of Naples, his home. Well Scarborough was my birthplace and though I've never been to Naples and I don't live in Scarborough now, it'll always continue be my spiritual home.

Scarborough:

Hearts desire, my yearning for home
Watching & waiting & longing to roam.
Scrunching the sand with each hallowed footfall
Seabirds a scrying, surveying us all.
Looking up to the castle silhouetted in black
I'm back in my heartland but it's hard to keep track.
The view is the same, the sea & the shore
Lifting my senses, promising more.
With the castle & keep, the lighthouse stands proud,
The gaudy amusements with music so loud.
It still seems much the same as the days of my youth
But it's different as well...more brash & uncouth.
But my heart always yearns for a look back to home
Wherever I wander, wherever I roam
My heart always knows that Scarborough's my home.