Good Oak.

Pigeon in my yard.

 When I got up this morning, I found that about four inches of snow had fallen overnight. The first real snowfall of this winter. The sun came out eventually, so I got well wrapped up and went for a brisk walk around Westbury. The area around the churchyard mainly. I took a few pics. I was only out for about half an hour, but it was good to get some fresh air. Yesterday I watched Cheltenham from League 2 take on Manchester City in the F.A. Cup. Man C are one of the biggest teams in the world, but Cheltenham took the lead and were still winning with about 15 minutes to go, but City scored three times to win the game. That is the magic of the F.A. Cup where lowly teams get the chance to play the best. My team Peterborough United are up to 3^rd place in League 1 after another win, so it was a good afternoon of football.

Westbury Church.

I read another chapter of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold last night. I’m enjoying reading it now. The chapter I read was called Good Oak and was about sawing down an oak tree which had been destroyed by lightning. They were sawing it up for firewood. As you know, you can age a tree by the rings that are created in the trunk each year. He could tell that this tree was about 80 years old. As he sawed through the years of the tree, he recounted what had happened during those years. It was mainly concerned with the depletion of the wildlife in Wisconsin, such as the disappearance of passenger pigeons, lynx, and cougar. It shows that even in the 1940s people were becoming concerned about mans negative effect on the environment.

 I started watching a film called Pawn Sacrifice which was about the chess player Bobby Fischer. He didn’t seem to be a very likeable character, portrayed as a paranoid, racist, control freak. I expect it wasn’t all his fault. I think he was probably on the Asperger’s spectrum where people can be brilliant at one subject but can’t cope with anything else. I’m not a psychologist, so I don’t really know. I am afraid I fell asleep before the end of the film. That will do for today because Manchester United are playing Liverpool shortly. I’ll tell you who wins tomorrow.

Addendum: Manchester United won 3-2, a really good game.