As Fiona is getting fitter and healthier we got out yesterday for a nice 4 mile walk around the Easby woods at Richmond in Swaledale. There were a lot of bird sounds in the woods but we could see few of them and I reckon they are courting as well as nestbuilding.

Because it was the last day of the Baha'i Fast we said prayers at the small and very ancient church next to Easby Abbey. We could not get into the church so we sat in the porch amongst all of the lovely Easter Flowers and said our prayers there. It was a sort of Christian-Baha'i interfaith experience except there were no Christians just flowers and they had been put there by the fine Richmond Christians so I think that counts. Lovely  and I sang a prayer as well

We usually carry our own coffee and biscuit but as I was fasting I treated Fiona to coffee and cake at the Station Cafe. I once got a train from there way back in 1959 and they have restored and redeveloped the place very nicely. It was absolutely chock-full of Senior Citizens and we surely are a retirement nation in this part of the world.

Fiona woke up very fit this morning. Nice! So, it was off to the Durham woods to see which birds were out and about. Not many! We heard a few and saw hardly anything. But what we did see was brilliant. Three fine Goosander's on the River Wear as we walked up to the Houghall farm. Two more Goosander's just above the weir at Prebend Bridge and then on the way back 2 gorgeous Goosander's which looked in prime condition and were hovering around the riverbank which is very unusual for a Goosander, they normally spend a lot of the time in the middle of the river so we deduced that they may be looking for a nesting site. Good fun.

After all of this wandering and walking and seeing the council work that had been done clearing a landslide only for it to liquefy and a lot of very runny mud is streaming across the path, we trundled on back down the A1 and Fiona was fast asleep within 10 min. God bless her! She missed the fine cumulus clouds building up which is a sure indication that spring is in the air because it is getting warmer.