Saturday 2nd January 2021

Despite it being the second day of the year, we were not back to work. Tis is because it am also the weekend.

Which was nice.

Sunday is also the weekend, which means no work until the 4th.

Although the weather wasn't so nice as Friday, it was time for the annual New Year Plant Hunt for @BSBI, so I make sure my camera batteries are all charged, memory cards formatted, and after putting on two layers of clothes and my boots, we step outside.

I was armed with two cameras and boundless energy, to a point. Jools had a rubbish bag and a grabber as she would be litter picking, as despite being surrounded by people who love the country so much they voted to make it poorer, the roadsides are strewn with litter. Some from the poor truckers who were stuck here from before Christmas, but mostly from locals who don't seem to care.

We walk to the end of the road, turn down Station Road, and I was pressing ahead, going from one wild flower still showing, to the next one.

I see Borage, Common Groundsel, Yarrow, Violet, Dandelion, Smooth Sowthistle, Creeping Bellflower, Petty Spurge, Ivy Leaved Toadflax, Red Valerian and many others. According to the rules, I stoop and snap each one.

Up the other side of the Dip to wait at the top by the old Red Lion, now a private house, waiting for Jools to catch up. She arrived saying she had found sacks, a hard hat among other things, so I suggested she was back home and I would head down Kingsdown Road to the top of Norway Drove: The Dip.

Cars were scattered on and off the road, meaning people walking had no choice but to walk in the road, most drivers accept this, others don't and they speed by leaving an inch or so between their wing mirrors and my hands. A Paddington Bear hard stare fails to slow them down.

But soon I am hout of the village, heading out on the cycle path with views over the valley to our house on the opposite side.

I had to dodge crazy-mad cyclists who seem to view any stretch of road or path as a racetrack and thet if you don't hear their slick tyres coming, then you're fair game.

I was safe by the time I got to the top of the Dip, looking down at the mudbath at the bottom.

Not much to see on the way down, just a few spindle bushes showing off their pink berries. I weave my way through the mud at the bottom, and up the other side to Fleet House, and finally along Collingwood, snapping the spikes of Heliotrope at the new houses, before cutting down to the track that leads back to our street in the hope of seeing a Dense Flowered Fumitory, I had seen shots of them in flower in other parts of the country, but not here.

I walk the final few hundred yards to home, and almost made it when some neighbours I hadn't spoken to before asked me what I had been snapping.

Half an hour later I was free and walked back down the drive, taking my muddy shoes off and putting the kettle on. Jools was back already, so I make us both brews.

Later, I make lunch, boiled chicken and rice with the last of the Christmas bacon, a luxurious five slices went into the pan, but it was wonderful.

We eat our fill, leaving enough for Jools to have for lunch on Monday when she returns to work.

I take to the sofa to watch the football scores come in.

Needless to say, I do rest my eyes for a while, but wake up at twenty past three, and keep an eye via Twitter and the radio of how Norwich were getting on.

City win thanks to a glorious goal by Emi, though dominate the game and score just the one goal, and it was enough. Just. Four points clear at the top.

We have cheese and crackers for supper. And wine. Inbetween the evening's two football games. Wolves drew 3-3 at Brighton, which was a great game. Kept me awake anyway.

And that was your Saturday.