There were quite a few things that made me happy this week, so it was a little bit hard to choose which one to show you. I mean, I know my posts ramble on a bit, and I don’t want to bore you all.

But yesterday’s walk at Ferry Meadows pleased me and made me very happy, despite gusts of wind up to 80-odd miles an hour which nearly had both us and the dogs off their feet once or twice.

The sun was strong and the wind was strong, but it wasn’t too cold, which was nice, and the conditions made for some dramatic photo opportunities. I was particularly happy with that picture at the top – a happy accident indeed!

A rook was poking about in the grass quite close to us, so I went to take a picture of him, but he hopped up to the top of the little bank next to the path where he was silhouetted against the low winter sun. I didn’t expect the colours – but aren’t they fun?

A little further on, I glanced over to the lake side of the path, and what did I see?

A pair of ducks all cosied up in the reeds, sheltering from the wind. Aren’t they cute? This isn’t a breeding pair, but lots of the birds had paired up ready for the breeding season. We saw geese and ducks two-by-two all over the place.

This little fellow was on his own though -

And it made me very happy to see him – or her – I have no idea. Both male and female Great Crested Grebes look pretty much the same. He or she is in breeding plumage though!

They’re not seen particularly often around here, at least not by me (which is why it made me happy), but aren’t they pretty? Elegant little birds.

You’ll have to forgive the quality of the shot, but it was moving fast, partly because it was shy of me, and partly because it was being blown along the surface of the water. And then, every so often, it would dive, and come back up somewhere else!

So there you have it. A fairly ordinary dog walk turned into an occasion for happiness – which is everywhere if you look for it!

‘How to be HAPPY!’ is a brand new meme. It’s about finding the little things in life which bring a smile or a glow of warmth to our hearts and souls during our daily lives. Why? Because it’s the way all these little things add up which truly determines if we are happy people, not the big stuff like a lottery win.

To enter, write a post about one thing which has made you happy in some small way recently – it could be birdsong, a favourite smell, a particularly good loaf of bread, a blue sky, anything! Then scroll to the bottom, click the Mr Linky graphic and add your blog post details to the Linky which will appear in a new window, and you’re in.

If you’d like, copy the badge (up at the top of this post) and paste it into your own.

Oh, and it would be nice if you popped round to visit and comment on a few of the others, too!