relativity goes tits up

Our neighbours all report seeing long tailed tits regularly in their gardens but they seem to avoid our feeders (too full of hungry sparrows?) so it was very pleasing to see one (on the frozen apple tree) for the first time today.

two suggested universal laws of nature:-

1. Buy any garden furniture or barbecue equipment after 1st March  and it will rain incessantly until September.

2. Put some fertiliser and weed killer on a grass lawn and it will not rain again for several months.

Clearly these two laws must interact, and this would suggest that you should only buy garden furniture a day or so after fertilising the lawn, or conversely fertilising the lawn several hours after buying garden furniture. This may be one of those higher dimensional problems with a solution in an alternative universe.

idyllic days

some days seem just perfect and today was one of those days, the ducks on the Venterdon duck pond overlooked by a bank of daffodils, primroses and celandine, and (below) a squadron of fieldfares taking off. They are winter visitors and will soon be off to their breeding grounds in southern central Europe.

what shall I eat next

one of my favourite things! The arrival of a female woodpecker in the garden suggests we might see some more soon.

glad to be out!

not only the magpies are frisky today

Easter primroses

these primroses, in a small patch on the road into our village, are an unusually rich buttery yellow (compared with the normal pale yellow see post below)

four for a boy

In addition to all the other birds a group of magpies have started hanging around. I am not quite sure what they are up to, (courting?),  but usually it is trouble.