Dreich

Lostock School playing field
Black-headed gulls, jackdaws, lesser black-backs, common gulls and a herring gull

When I woke at twenty to five the robin was already singing, my first dawn chorus of the year although dawn's officially just after eight o'clock today. I'm a bit bored of rain, I've reminded myself — at length — that I'll be spending July and August complaining about the heat and lack of rainfall. According to the weather forecasts today's showers should be the last for a few days, we'll see how that goes.

I really couldn't be bothered today. It was fairly quiet in the garden, despite my having filled the feeders. Over on the school field twenty-odd black-headed gulls drifted in for the lunchtime bonanza and left en masse once they realised there wasn't going to be one. Mid-afternoon fifty-odd floated in to loaf with a few herring gulls, lesser black-backs and common gulls.

I dragged myself out for a walk in what was threatening to be sunshine. I wasn't convinced I was sure where I was going and drifted off in the direction of Cob Kiln Wood. If the weather held I could move on to Banky Meadow or Kickety Brook, if not I could beat a retreat and off home. In either case I wasn't going to head over to Urmston Meadows from this direction, the paths are atrocious at the best of times.

I'd passed Humphrey Park Allotments with its gathering starlings when it started raining. The clouds parted, the sun shone and the rain got worse. I carried on towards Cob Kiln Wood as the wind picked up and drove sleety rain into my face. And I gave up. It had been a half-hearted attempt at a walk and there was no point in being silly about it.