Well, not exactly, but after a brief venture out this morning, I've decided I can't be bothered to take to the roads any more than is strictly necessary, and have barricaded myself inside with a plethora of reading material, a Christmas backlog of cheese, shortbread and other goodies, and a lot of malt whisky and fine port. Oh, and a box set of The Sopranos.
First thing I read today was Margaret Attwood's fine article in The Guardian about bird conservation. She covers a lot of ground, much of it the sort of thing that came up at the recent Birds, Culture and Conservation symposium.
I've also been browsing through Ian Hamilton's Collected Poems, reading The Mabinogion, and re-reading Byron Rogers' superb biography of RS Thomas, The Man Who Went Into The West.
Oh, and I've just half-watched the repeat of Bill Bailey's Birdwatching Bonanza, on Sky. It's not great, and it could be a bit shorter, but it was quite entertaining, and I suppose it's good to see birdwatching getting any sort of positive coverage. Some nice footage of Barnacle Geese, too.
2 comments:
Sensible man! First season boxset of Deadwood softened being mostly housebound here last few days. Bad timing for post-xmas abstinence though. Looks like conditions are improving in Dublin today - bit of a thaw on.
Bailey's programme was fun, but I'm not sure it'll work longterm. the mix of competition and naturewatch seems forced? Nice footage of Red Kites though. Many visitors here at the mo - loads of redwing, fieldfare, teal, lapwing. More sighting of blackcaps and raptors than usual.
Happy New Year Matt.
Happy New Year!
Yeah, I think you're right. Quite how they'll manage to do the same sort of thing every week, even at different sites, I don't know. But I though BB was good - the right mixture of knowledge and fun.
Quite a few Fieldfares and Redwings in gardens here, plus things like Grey Wagtail that we'd never normally see.
You're dead right about post-Christmas abstinence too!
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