Last before Christmas

[No book review this week – I’ve been too busy to read].

I am keen on National Hunt racing, as regular readers will know. And I’m a member at Cheltenham as that is where, overall, the best of British NH racing takes place. So I headed off from Northants to Glos on Saturday morning.

But I love the drive to the races too. That is part of the enjoyment for me. Heading through the glorious English countryside on a crisp winter’s day, with the sun out and casting long shadows, is part of the winter scene for me.

My journey takes me past Brackley and then across country through Deddington, Chipping Norton, past Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop to Stowe before taking the back way through the really pretty country west of Stowe and coming over the crest of Cleeve Hill to look across to the distant Malverns and then in front to the home straight of the racecourse far below.

I know every bit of the road, every turn, every place where it is easy or difficult to overtake, and quite a few places where one should look out for birds.

Also, the timing at this time of year fits well with my taste in Saturday morning radio. First there is the fairly local vicar, Rev Richard Coles, on Saturday Live on Radio 4 and later Fighting Talk on 5Live.  Those programmes and the view, and an occasional Buzzard and Kestrel, and a few mouthfuls of peppermint Aero get me to the races.

A Red-legged Partridge flew over the road, which is a bit unusual, and then I saw why. There was a line of men with guns walking through a field and this was an escapee. In a more distant field, a line of beaters were heading away from me.  It was probably a nice day to go shooting, as it was a nice day to go racing, and a nice day to be in the Cotswolds for lots of other reasons.

I stopped and downed the window to talk to a man with a telescope at the place where the Short-eared Owls often are. He hadn’t seen any, and said they hadn’t been reported for a few days, and I said I’d look on my return from the races, and we each wished the other luck.

There were plenty of Fieldfares in the trees.

I ate some fish and chips before the first race and added House Sparrow to my day-list for Cheltenham. It’s an unusual sighting for me there – occasional rather than regular.  Gulls of four species graced the course and there are always Pied Wagtails at racecourses, for some reason.

Then there was some racing. the last two races were the best as far as I am concerned. The New One won fairly easily and hardened as favourite for the Champion Hurdle back here at Cheltenham next March (although 11/4 hardly looks like value when the Irish are bound to have something up their sleeves) and a former Champion Hurdler, Rock On Ruby, firmed up his claims for the Stayers’ Hurdle (as it used to be known (and still is in my head)).

Then a pretty sharp exit and I was parked looking for Short-eared Owls as the Pheasants shrieked their ‘goodnight!’s to each other in the falling gloom. I was joined by a friend who spotted the SEO first. It came towards us across the light brown of the tall grass.  SEOs always look to me as though their wings are too long for their bodies, but they are lovely birds. This one came close and put on a brief show before disappearing. It was too cold, and getting too dark, to wait to see whether others turned up. We said our goodbyes again, and as I head east (almost always a dreary direction) a Barn Owl flew across the road in a place I had seen them before. A two-owl day – always good to have.

My last race meeting before Christmas, my last Short-eared Owl before Christmas, my last sunny Saturday before Christmas?

 

 

[registration_form]