Another early  Monday morning start, 5.30 am, bleary-eyed.  Scraping frost from the windscreen and shivering.  Not an auspicious start to the week – or is it?

Passing Stonehenge, there are indistinct spectral shapes on the frosty field, that suddenly rise together and split into three great glorious flocks of lapwings, twisting  together on rounded wings in charismatic co-ordination.   Further along,  silvery white hoar frost covers the rolling landscape, picking out the loping golden figure of a lone hare in stark contrast.  By lunchtime, the sun is shining warm on the fields, and a single deer leaps and is away……

A watchful eye transforms what could be a mundane Monday into a magical exhilarating experience.