Precious beauty of the commonplace

LAURENCE CATLOW, A PASSIONATE SHOOTER AND ANGLER FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS, HAS WRITTEN FIVE BOOKS ABOUT SPORT WITH ROD AND GUN. HIS NOTEBOOK RUNS IN THE FIRST ISSUE OF EVERY MONTH.

It was a grey morning of dim shapes and blurred impressions through the fog. The air was still and sharp. Fieldfares were disembodied sounds somewhere up there in the sky. Frost was hard in the ground, the fields were white, tall stalks of dead grass were enamelled with rime and the gorse was covered with a silver-grey veil of spiders’ webs.

It was 1 December; it was unequivocally winter and I was doing what I am usually doing at