It’s definitely time to move away from Roman Numerals.

XXX is quite a good number  but it begins to get a bit unwieldly after that, particularly as I’m not quite sure how to handle 40. Is it XXXX or is it XL? It’s XXXX according to my old History teacher, who told me that this was the classic way, and that the subtraction style was a newer method. For “newer” think less than 2,000 years. It’s XL according to this chart, but even this chart can’t make 50 – 54 look good. (That’s L – LIIII, in case you were wondering).

Oat and Raisin biscuit, tea, walking stick and my leg. Not my best work. Yes. it was a big biscuit.

The “scone” today is an oat and raisin biscuit eaten in the outside area at Carsington Water. We ate in the outside area so I could throw crumbs on the floor to attract sparrows. I was that desperate for a bird photograph. The results were, as you can see, not good. Most of the shots featured an empty space, half a bird, a blurred bird or a bird with its eyes shut. Of all my bird photos, and there have been some horrors, I don’t recall “eyes shut” being a problem before.

Male Hose Sparrow Carsington Water

There is a reasonably good restaurant at Carsington Water but it’s upstairs and it’s enclosed. They would probably take a dim view of me throwing crumbs on the floor, and even if I did, the sparrows are unlikely to find their way in. Anyway, after a large breakfast we didn’t need another meal.

Female Hose Sparrow Carsington Water

There is an RSPB Shop and a charity shop there. In the charity shop we bought a couple of books – a vegetarian cook book for Julia and a history book for me. It’s the diaries of an Olympic rower in the Great War. The title, Kelly’s war : the Great War diary of Frederick Kelly, 1914-1916 tends to give the game away. I am not expecting a happy ending.