Day 196 - A Walk at Coombes Valley

I walked at Coombes Valley this morning, an RSPB reserve. This is somewhere I've visited many, many times, but it's only appeared on this blog once so far, on Day 79. Today I was walking in the rain but there were still lots of birds around, including several jays towards the end of my walk, one of which was hunting snails in the long grass.  I found some deer poo and then later, some deer slots, which I followed and, as a result, discovered a new footpath I hadn't seen before - once that goes beyond the reserve boundary and into the surrounding countryside. One day I might walk it!

I'd been looking out for this year's 'Stickmas Tree' as I walked but hadn't found anything suitable, so from Coombes, I popped over to Hassop (near Bakewell) where there's a roadside that is almost guaranteed to provide a suitable branch for the job - I've had a few from there in past years!  Here is this year's tree, as it currently stands in the little living room upstairs in my 'wing' of the house!

I'll decorate it at some point.