A late afternoon walk and a happy birthday wish

This has been a wonderfully lazy day. We read about the queues waiting to get into London or Oxford stores for the Boxing Day sales and we laughed about it all. There's no way, that's not our style. We went for a walk instead. Oxfordshire has a ton of lakes around; remnants of gravel extraction. These lakes make great habitats for birds and water fowl. Most of the lakes have public footpaths thru them and this is one such walk we found.This walk goes to and over the Windrush River. That's the river which flows around our next door village and joins the Thames five fields away. There are holiday lets (rentals) all along one side of one of the lakes. We were thinking that this must be a lovely place to spend a couple of summer weeks swimming and boating around; especially for city people.We stopped on the bridge across the Windrush for several minutes and looked at the sky.And on the way home, a promise of spring. Pussy willows starting to open.I spoke to my mom this evening, (morning in Vancouver) and wished her a very happy birthday. She's making roasted ducks for a few friends who will gather at her home. Love you mom, and I hope you have the best day. :D