The Birds and the Bear

The picture today is of my sly preparations a week in advance for the RSPBs annual Garden Bird Watch due next weekend. This is where your household spends just an hour counting the maximum number of each bird species seen from your window at any one time (i.e. not the total number seen). It's not meant to be a competition, but I do like to 'ground-bait' with lots of bird food well in advance (to steal a Course Fishing term). I hope this doesn't count as another competitive doping scandal that gains unfair advantage.

I took the photo today just before I dashed off to watch the second half only of the Spurs vs Man U game, being shown live on SKY Sports at the White Bear just up the road. I left the house before 4, having avoided the score, and promised MrsB dutifully I would be home in time for tea in an hour (a 6-hour slow-cooked leg of lamb, so plenty of reason not to be late). The only problem was, I misread kick-off which turns out was 4 o-clock. So it was, I only got to take in the first half. Happy to report though I did get home in time and left the boys in the lead. The lamb was delicious as expected. The only trouble was, that without my support in the second half, Spurs equalised late-on in injury time.

Postscript: So great to see Obama sworn in today for his second term at the White House. Is it appropriate then that I also got given an unexpected copy today of Doris Kearn's biography Lincoln: Team of Rivals? It came as a free copy with the Sunday Telegraph, and is the very book that inspired the brilliant new Daniel Day-Lewis film. Have read the introduction already, and it is looking pretty damn good. What a giant of a man in all senses of the word. I wonder how Obama will be looked back on in 150 years or so?