Sunday 20th December 2020

At 07:00 the new regualtions came into force, and despite saysing as recently as Wednesday he would not cancel Christmas, Johnson did just that. And as Kent is not plague capital of Kent, we were in the top tier, meaning that we could meet no one outside the family support bubble inside, and just one person from another household outside.

I had planned to go an meet my friend Gary on Sunday, to look for and photograph kingfishers, but the new lockdown seemed to put a stop to that. And, indeed, when you read the rules, not laws, you had to have a good reason for being out, apparently driving to a park for a walk was OK, and sitting on a bench or the ground was fine, so not just for exercise, so Gary and I decided I would go down as planned, park at his then we would walk, whilst socially distancing, to the park, and look for the pretty birdies.

I would, however, would have to get out of bed. And another Sunday morning came round and I slept in, and slept in realy good. I woke up and it was nearly daylight, it was ten past eight, or nearly dinner time in the Jelltex household.

So, I get up and get dressed, Jools made a coffee, giving me about an hour before I had to be out to drive to Gary's in River. That's the town of River, not an actual river. Just to be clear.

So, I put the big boy lens on the camera, check battery and memory car. And I can leave. I remember to grab a new face mask on my way out.

The roads are quiet, which makes a pleasant change, so I can drive along the A2 to Whitfield, then down the hill to River, and then to Gary's house beside Kearsney Abbey.

He was waiting in his porch, he waved. I waved back. Getting out of the car, I hand him a Christmas card, we swap news, and we are ready to go.

Opposite his house is the top gate to the Abbey Park, we go through and find that the council has been busy laying new gravel paths through the park, which means we won't get muddy feet. We follow the path down to a new bridge that has been built over the fake waterfall, and there, in among the tree branches Gary spots a Kingfisher.

I mean, I doubted I would see one, in all my life there have been four occasions where I have seen one or the person I was with saw one, but when my Granddad told me thaone had flown by on the path to Ham on Oulton Marsh, I looked and saw nothing. A few years ago I saw one in Germany walking along from the harbour at Husum. I was thrilled, I mean only saw the blue-orange flash of it taking flight into the reedbed, but I saw one. Then I saw them twice last year, once at Stodmarsh in March and when we went on the beaver hunt at Ham Fen, both were fleeting glimpses, and too quick to raise my camera at in anger.

But here was a Kindfisher, about 20 feet away, I edged closer, raised the camera, took aim and hit the shutter. Moved closer, shot again.

I moved to try to get a better shot, and some movement above my head caught my eye, I saw it was a bird, the bird was tiny. It could only be a Gold or Fire Crest. It was a Goldcrest, I took some shots in the gloom, and rattled off several shots.

I got lucky.

We watch the kingfisher some more, but it came no closer, so we move on after it flew off to sit on a distant fallen treetrunk to fish some more.

Down by the lakes there were the usual mix of swans, ducks and moorhens. We walk on.

The renovation of the tea house is nearly done. Its only taken four years, look good. I take a shot of that and of the massive and ancient Cedar of Lebanon which is still thriving.

We were walking to Russell Garden, but a dog walker sees us coming and was waving at us to look back to where we had crossed the steam on a small bridge. We look back but could see nothing.

He comes to us and points to a branch, and there is another Kingfisher.

We stop to watch and see it dive twice for fish, me even getting a shot as it took off back to the branch.

Over the main road, we meet up three other snappers, where a pair of Kingfishers were keeping us all entertained We were even able to point out to some familes of the delightful birds, there were as thrilled as we were.

The light wasn't good, or when it was sunny the birds sat in deep shade, now showing off their plumage to best effect.

We walked back over heading for his house as I saw dark clouds rolling in, we only got a hundred yards before the rain came down, with the sun still shining, a rainbow formed between us and the massive cedar tree, the light was fabulous. We sheltered under a tree until the rain eased, taking us back to the first spot where we watched the female fish some more, and get more shots.

That done, we walk back to his house, say goodbye and I climb back in the car to come home, taking Reach Road past the Castle and along the cliffs so to miss any jams that might have formed. Light across the Channel was stunning, with the cliff of France rising from the sea in the shadows 23 miles away.

Back home to have a brew, a slice of Christmas Cake and review my shots taken, and am pretty happy. One would have been great. I have over 500.

I cook dinner, chorizo hash and have another Christmas beer with it, before settling down for football, because, Sunday. And outside rain falls.

Darkness falls, as does the rain, and in the football it rains goals, eight in Manchester as Utd beat Dirty Leeds. Odd how when Norwich played like that last year we were naive and stupid that we would not change our approach, but for Leeds to do the same was loveable. This Sky love-in with Dirty Leeds knows no bounds.

Sigh.

I'm not bitter.

At least the later game is not on Sky, so Jools watches the last episode of His Dark Materials, series two, which I couldn't get excited about. Same with series 5 of The Exapanse, I don't watch that either.

I follow the footy on Twitter, and then, at half nine, we go to bed.

Phew.