welcome 2012

The second week of January and I'm woken by birdsong over the rumble of the A2 - birds establishing their territory. It's warm enough to walk through the woods without a coat and daffodil leaves are spearing through the earth. I see two green woodpeckers lying low in grassland; with red-caps and and their long archetypically birdy skulls that look like they've been stroked into shape by a firm hand.

I'm doing the marathon again this year and it's week two of training - dragging the old body out into the open, pushing it along, a punitive, pleasurable way of engaging with the world..

I had a place last year but I didn't take it up - this year, I have the hunger again to push myself hard and commit to the training. It also gives me a sense of purpose and structure having just moved house. Here's to new paths ahead.