It's 0530, what does the 0 stand for?

Gooooooooooooooood morning Woodley, it's 0530 and the 0 stands for Oh my god it's early!

Ok, we're not in Vietnam and I'm nowhere near as charismatic as Robin Williams, but it was damn early when my 13 yr old boy woke me up after camping in the garden for the 30th night.

What do you do with a boy who is about to go on his Amazon Fire at ridiculous O'Clock? We're incredibly lucky to live right next to an entrance to Dinton Pastures, and having had a few very early walks in the park since the clocks changed I suggested it to him - and he surprisingly said yes.

I wouldn't normally write about a trip to Dinton, but today isn't just any day - as everyone knows, it's International Dawn Chorus Day.

The weather was a little chilly, so we dressed up. We set off armed with thermos mugs of tea and hot chocolate (and Thomas learnt what happens when you put metal in a microwave, don't try it kids!).

We took a route in to the park we haven't taken in our 14 years of living in Woodley, we walked through Mortimers Meadow which was a bad idea as five minutes in we had wet feet!

We then took our traditional family walk over the River Loddon, past White Swan lake, Tufty's Corner and then towards the water sports centre and Black Swan lake.

People were either heeding social distancing, or still tucked up in bed where we should have been. Maybe it's because of the current state of the world, but people really do seem much friendlier right now.

I love this time of the morning despite not being an early riser, I feel like I've already won the day by the time I get home. By 0730 we were back home eating porridge.

To finish with, I'd like to share some of the new facts I learnt from Thomas this morning:

There are 21 species of shark which swim around the UK
There are Scorpions in the UK
Pigeons are pretty much just ducks
If you're told not to face someone and stand back to back, you are in effect still facing them

Stay safe, we'll all be back in Dinton Pasture's soon.