Mr and Mrs Swan with their new kids:

This is the little pond at the end of my road. This pair have been returning here each winter for about the past ten years. It’s not really big enough for swans, but they use it as a sort of maternity unit cum nursery until the cygnets are big enough to manage a quarter mile trek across the main road and on to the main lake. Hope they make it, again.

Meanwhile:

The other evening, out for a stroll, we came across a fox and a plump little deer. They seemed to be hanging out together, comfortable with each other, not at all fazed by any oddity of the arrangement.

Of course, like all wildlife, they stared at us with The Look. You know the one: “What are you doing? Are you allowed to be out wandering about like this?” Then they decided we were either boring or dodgy and nipped into a nearby hedgerow.

Life goes on. And will do, long after the planet has got sick and tired of us