Last week I visited Compton Verney and saw their excellent Moore and Rodin exhibition.  In the grounds of the house the copy of the Burghers of Calais that is usually found outside Parliament is to be found.  This celebrates(?) the siege of Calais by the English in the 15th century when an awful lot of the occupants of Calais died.   Death was also in the air this morning as a young family of Blue Tits fledged from a nest box in the garden.  For reason best known to themselves Blue Tit seem to fledge when the weather is quite miserable.

In one sense this is a good introduction to the hardships of their short lives because few of the fledglings will last much beyond the day as they are predated by other animals needing to feed their young.  Even if they make it to adulthood they probably won’t last for more than a couple of years in which their lives would be hard and mostly spent either feeding themselves or the broads they bring into this world.

At times life can be really shitty.