tempting fate good times and sad news

Well it had to happen didnt it. I talk about mild weather and we get frost for a few days. About time too it looked seasonal and winterish which makes a change.

Been out and about again, another trip to the coast to mark someones birthday. Frost on the sand and some nice mammals and birds and lovely Norfolk scenery. A stoat in full ermine was lovely to see as it dashed about on a roadside verge. A small group of Grey Partridges in a field beside a car parking area with beyond them pinkfooted geese and a quartering barn owl. Pictures in the mind for other days.

Then onto more sad news I am afraid, I posted about the number of Rangers lost in 2011 working in and gaurding the wildlife and special places around the world. 2012 has not started well in this respect at all. Four Rangers in four different countries have been killed be poachers and other folk who dont like what they do to protect the natural world in all its forms that we see and perhaps take for granted on TV screens. For most of the families of those lost life will be very hard now without a breadwinner. For one where the Ranger lost was a woman her husband is also a Ranger in the same park, going to work will never be the same again I am sure.

We must never lose our love of special places but we also never forget that people work hard to maintain them, in some cases risking their lived to do it on a daily basis.