Could it be down to the steroids?  I was awake early yesterday and even earlier today - more than two hours before the alarm was due to wake me and it was still only dimly light outside.  This was due in part to the continuing cloud cover.  Still, maybe the rain will fatten my raspberries.  Although I have been picking them in reasonable numbers, they are much smaller than in other years and I put this down to the extraordinary dry period we have had in this little corner of south-east England.  The blackberries are also smaller than usual but at least we have some.  I have read in the paper that they are in short supply in the hedgerows, as are the sloes.  Not that the shortage of sloes bothers me unduly since neither the wife nor I drink gin in any way.

I spent those two hours after waking alternately dozing and counting my blessings, though why I should suddenly decide to count my blessings I really cannot say.  But it ius an exercise we should all go through from time to time just so that we realise we are all so much better off in some ways than other people.  I got to thinking about a whole raft of small things that give me pleasure, not blessings in the strict sense of the word but definitely things that improve my life.  I had a long list of them as I was lying there but I probably won't remember the half of them now.  All the same, here goes.

• The comfort of my bed on a wet, windy, winter night.
• The intense, almost acrylic colour of the scarlet Queen Elizabeth rose in the evening light.
• The trust, loyalty and, yes, canine affection in the eyes of my dog as she looks up at me with her chin on my knee.
• The song of a robin or blackbird as I walk through the woods or park.
• The green of a beechwood in spring.
• Catching the scent of a vase of sweet peas on the kitchen table.
• A bowl of raspberries freshly picked in the garden.
• Seeing my granddaughter tucking into a meal prepared by my wife.
• A Union Jack flying free.
• A grassy bank scattered with primroses.
• Watching a family of tits - blue, great or long-tailed - foraging in the trees.

I'm sure there were more but that's all I can remember.

~~~~~

Châteaubriant is a town some 10 or 11 miles away from our house in the small village of la Prévière.  Much nearer - in fact, only 2 or 3 miles away - is the smaller town of Pouancé.  Pouancé in in the ancient dukedom of Anjou and also has a château, although this is much more like the castles we know in England with thick walls and strong towers.  At least, they were.  Much of it is now a ruin.  It stands high on a bluff overlooking a lake and getting a good photograph proved difficult.