The Christmas dinner leftovers have been eaten and the overflowing recycling box collected, drawing a line under the festive excesses.
Last year, my youngest daughter still played with the empty cardboard boxes her presents had arrived in. At one point this year she did hurl into the air the corn-starch foamy pieces packed around jars of pickle and oil from a box of posh food gifts. They littered the floor like a snow drift, reminding me of white Christmases long gone. This done, her attention turned to the telly, and the moment passed.
This innocent enjoyment of objects seen by the rest of us as material that requires problematic processing inspired me to re-set my social conscience. You can’t wrap a russet-hued sunset or a sparkly frosty-white cobweb, but I value the rare moments where I can stop, stare and wonder at these free and amazing gifts.
It will be the most troubled person who worried over how much their Christmas dinner cost in terms of money. The most contented people treasured every tasty mouthful and appreciated the effort spent delivering the food to the plate.
Food is a basic of life, alongside clean water and fresh air. We often forget but all three of these are influenced by one powerful group of individuals in the UK; farmers.
A new report called "Farming's value to society", commissioned by the Oxford Farming Conference and sponsored by Burges Salmon, the RSPB and animal nutrition specialists, Volac was published this week. Conference chair Mike Gooding said: “Our farmers have the skills and geographical reach to address some of society's fundamental challenges such as health, well-being and self-sustaining communities; but turning that opportunity into reality requires a better connection between wider society and farmers, and it is a two-way process”.
From my urban vantage point in sunny Hackney, it’s far too easy to forget the contribution farmers make to my life. There’s obviously food, but there are also the rolling hills of middle England. The moors of Scotland, the fluffy white sheep grazing the Welsh mountains and the beef and dairy products of Northern Ireland. There are the coastal paths, woodlands, rivers full of fish and the maintenance of the natural systems that support all life on earth.
How worthless life would be without all this. Please do share your images of special places by uploading them to Flickr, Instagram or our online RSPB Community, then tag them with #getoutdoors.