Unexpected frost - a good omen?
The notion that, ‘it’s the taking part which counts’ doesn’t really extend to field sports. Whilst it serves as a useful consolation for the losers of competitive games, where by definition some participants must always lose, it offers little to the shooter or fishermen for whom failure is not inevitable. The exception to this would be wildfowling where the participant is in competition, not with another human but with the natural world, employing every trick and enduring every hardship for the prize of a few ducks and geese. The marshes and mudflats are treacherous places though and it is a sad fact that many wildfowlers have played and lost - not only the game but their lives. Back to my point. It would be wrong of course to suggest that there is no value in simply being out shooting - there is, a great deal, but the sun seems so much brighter, the views longer and the company more congenial when you're not downcast by continual failure. From this little spiel you may correctly deduce that I have had a change in my shooting fortune. Before Christmas I was plagued by an impending gloom at the very thought of going out to H’s shoots thanks to my miserable performances but happily things have changed. A couple of birds taken on a rough day with my father on Christmas Eve restored some confidence and confidence being everything, I managed three more in the Boxing Day shoot. Today I was a changed man, bagging four pheasants and a duck with not too many misses. Even the dog had a good day by her standards, definitely showing a little interest in my commands and retrieving a good pheasant and the duck which had fallen into thick cover at Netters Hall. The final bag for the day was 29 pheasants, three mallard ducks and a pigeon, not bad at all for a post-Christmas shoot.
I was reminded of troubling news whilst out today. A, the head beater had half of his ferrets and all of his nets stolen over Christmas whilst away visiting family. Unusually the police took some proper interest in the crime and even did a forensics blood test on a smear wiped across the door frame. A had hoped that one of his less than friendly hob ferrets might have meted out a little justice but sadly the sample turned out to be from an animal, probably brought home for ferret food. To complete the local ferret news update I should mention that young O’s pair of ferrets, which I gave him in the summer are a pair no longer, the smaller Jill having consumed the larger. There are several possible explanations but what actually happened remains something of a mystery.
Despite the day starting with an unexpected frost, evidence of the warm weather is everywhere. Rape fields are turning yellow with the bloom of charlock (a common weed species amongst oilseed rape plants), the first snowdrops and snowflakes can be seen in gardens and this morning as I fed the poultry, the first undulating coos of courting pigeons came drifting through the coppice. The tantalising question is, will the mild weather continue and bring on an exceptionally early spring, or is a cold snap on the way to knock back those forward plants and amorous animals?
Dinner
Sweetcorn fritters with fried eggs, cabbage and bacon and baked beans. We are finally coming to the end of leftovers and meals out with family and friends, so cooking has resumed.
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