Flying into the setting sun...

A busy day. Alex felt unwell so didn't go to college, which meant I had an extra hour in bed - what luxury! Then I just had time to put the second coat of paint on two of the kitchen walls before going to a meeting to discuss some of the coming year's survey work on local Wildlife Trust nature reserves.

We had a very good discussion and sorted out what was required. Three of the sites are ancient woodlands, meaning that my season will start somewhat earlier than usual, in April. The last few years I've mainly been doing grasslands and brownfield sites, which meant that most of the work was concentrated in June and July. It'll be nice to have the work a little more spread out, and I'm really looking forward to doing some detailed survey on some beautiful sites that I've known for over twenty years.

Then, after picking up our books and accounts, it was back home to discuss another potential contract, and arrange a meeting to finalise the quote. It's always a rather uncertain time of year for us - lots of projects are being discussed but it'll be a few more weeks before we really know how much work there'll be. We could either be very busy and reasonably well off, or have lots of spare time and be poor...

It rained for much of the day, but cleared in the late afternoon so I took the dogs down to the river. It was cold and breezy, but the light was beautiful. Mind you I did walk into a bollard, while admiring some blossom, and was amazed that I managed to stay upright! I took several images of pussy willow and cherry-plum blossom, but as I was heading back a whole group of swans flew over my head, their feathers shaded with gold from the setting sun. A magnificent sight!