Glum

It was a heavy grey day after a cool, clear night but mercifully the wind had died down. I'd spent the night writing, the ideas were clicking so I wasn't watching the clock until I noticed it was ten to five, so come daylight my get up and go pretty much matched the weather. Out in the garden the spadgers and titmice had emptied the suet feeders; the squirrels and magpies, but mostly the magpies, had done for the suet balls; and I put bird food back on the shopping list. The last lot of sunflower seeds I looked at in the shop a few months back was thin and bitty, not much more meat in them than safflowers, I hope I can find better when I go out for some now.

I decided I'd go over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks in the gloom. My train into town was late, when I got in I looked at the state of the trains, I decided against. There was a Saturday afternoon feel to the services today.

On the way home I had a walk through Alexandra Park. The parakeets were coming into roost, at least seventy-five of them on my count. On the pond, mallards, coots got their suppers, tufted ducks and Canada geese drifted about the open water and a couple of mute swans loafed on the bank. The pigeons seemed to have decided on an early night.

By the time I got the bus home the gloom of the day had faded into proper twilight. This is the month where the shorter days really become noticeable.