I'M COLD, I'M WET AND...

...I’m whingeing so I apologise.  We have just got back from what started off as a lovely walk after Church but after about half an hour, Mr. HCB spotted the dark clouds - reminding me of a song we sing "O Lord, the clouds are gathering..." . Before we knew it, we were walking back to the car in very heavy rain, on the wrong side of the hedge, so that the rain was lashing down and got us very wet in about 5 minutes. It then took us another 10 minutes to get back to the car, by which time we looked very bedraggled.

The trouble was that I wasn't really dressed for bad weather - with just a gilet and no hat, but Mr. HCB at least had a fleece and hat so he was better protected that I was.  Friends of ours from church - and I know she reads my Blips - always says they never mind the weather, as they take all the right gear - so I need to take a leaf out of their book and make sure we do the same in future.

That said, it was a very pleasant walk up to that point and I did over 5,000 steps.  It was great to be out in the countryside, and good practice for walks I hope we will enjoy whilst on holiday, with virtually no noise except the birds singing and the wind in the trees and then, of course the sound of the rain in the very large puddles along the path.

As we started off I put on my Merlin Bird ID app and it recognised 11 different birds and then when we started our walk back, Mr. HCB's app recognised 2 others, so we were thrilled about that.

We both remarked how sparse the oil seed rape fields looked - often there were huge puddles in the corners of the field so the rain today didn't help.  We also noticed that many of the trees haven't yet got leaves - our awful weather is certainly playing havoc with nature.  My main shot was taken not long after we started our walk, in the dry, when Mr. HCB thought he had spotted a bird in the tree.

I have put in an extra collage, which shows Mr. HCB pointing out a buzzard - which wasn’t making any noise so didn’t record on our Merlin app and also a couple of leafless trees.  On the right is one of the huge puddles, with the rain lashing down and a very unflattering selfie of me with the rain dripping off my nose, my glasses and I might add, even down my neck! Stop whingeing woman!  

We got home and I got straight into a hot shower, after asking Mr. HCB very nicely if he would mind putting the heating on for a while - so we are now toasty and warm and I have stopped whingeing, you will be pleased to know! :-) 

I guess that if the rain comes down this week, there's more chance that we will have ten days of good weather when we are away;  we can always hope.

Two lessons learned today - always take extra and suitable outer wear in case it rains and ALWAYS make sure there is a towel in the boot!

Hope you all have a great week.  M xx