Well, I'm going to start Blogging again ! It's linked with various things I'm committed to doing during this coming year rather than being a New Years Resolution doomed to failure ! Bear with me please.
Given today has been focussed on festivities, or recovering from them, this entry doesn't even try to set out any wildlife experiences ( although I'm rather sad at being much further north and not in a position to have seen the Arctic Walrus that turned up in Scarborough Harbour ). So, I'm going to lay out below a poem I wrote at the very end of December 2020 when we were embroiled in Covid problems. I don't often write poetry ( it probably shows ! ) but it helped to set out both frustration and a hope that , surely, things must get better. I guess we've reached that point , although I suspect we still need to be cautious too
A Birder's Hopes
And as I crossed that threshold to the year anew,
And set aside the hardships of the year gone by,
I asked myself, "What now we might expect
and whether plans intended might themselves be filled ?".
A year ago my forward challenge for the months ahead
had been to visit UK places, far and wide, to try and
gain that hallowed total , fifteen score, of bird types seen.
A wasted thought , again, or still a possibility I mulled ?
Within these times our choices seem but few,
With regulation and restraint affecting countries all.
And yet our aspirations still give structure to our lives
When, in times future, with our consigned problems in the past,
Our hopes and actions will again be our normality fulfilled.
So , folks, I sincerely hope that 2023 will enable all of you to move towards a "normality fulfilled".
I truly hope so ! Best of luck and good birding all.