The Farm, Day 2....Much Excitement...

Well, first excitement was there's been a Red Kite flying around most times I've been up the farm, doesn't seem too worried about my presence, and of course I'm thinking oh wow. So this morning, it landed in a tree and when I looked, I saw a nest! Think it could well be his. When I took the dogs up the field this afternoon, he put in another appearance, and was swooping around me, fantastic or what? As I left in the car, I saw him land on the telegraph pole on the farm track, and he was jerking, and I thought oh, he's got something. Well he had, but he was feeding a hen, who was already sitting on the pole. WOW.

The other bit of excitement was of a completely different nature. Yesterday, I noticed a sheep in the field which had previously been empty, not any of Kates, but the farmer who uses the big fields. All the other sheep (about 15 or so) were in the next field. I thought this a bit strange. So today I noticed it kept trying to get through to the others, looked throughly pissed off. So having made sure it wasn't a ram and was separate for a reason, I attempted to get it back into the field with the others. What a nightmare. Sheep are indeed entirely without brains. It tried to barge through a metal gate until I thought it would bash it's brains out. Then it ran back up the field (about a quarter of a mile) and managed to get in the track between the two field, and kept running up and down until it got to a tree and couldn't go any further. I was by then losing my temper and said stuff you (or words to that effect....) and was about to give up, when it managed to squeeze through a gap and carry on down the tiny narrow bit between the two fields, out into the field I was in, and then carried on running and eventually went through the gate to join the others. Success, or so I thought. When I looked, it had made its way across to the far side of the field where they were, and then they all started running away from it in terror! OMG I nearly died. I thought oh shit perhaps it wasn't part of their flock at all, and has come from somewhere else. Now what do I do? I decided to deny all knowledge if I see the farmer (who is very conspicuous by his absence actually) Anyway, as I left I checked, and they were all grazing happily together. PHEW! The only thing I can think of is it came from the field behind that has the donkeys in, dunno, don't care much, lol. Wished I'd minded my own business though really.

Red Kite nest?

Donkeys

Emma

Barra and Skye

All three in one shot for once!

The farmhouse looking down from the field


The Kite


Frank on the bottle

The Farm, Day 1

After the awful weather of yesterday, it was a relief to wake this morning to brilliant blue sky and sunshine, which was a bit of a surprise too, as we altered the clocks to BST last night, so although my alarm was set for 6.45, it was in reality on 5.45 and I didn't expect it to be that light!

So everything went really well, the feeding of the lambs was a bit of an ordeal though, because all five want feeding at once, and with only two hands it's a bit difficult to say the least. Frank, the little ram, has his first, because he bullies the girls otherwise, then you have to chose which two are next, and meanwhile the poor two that have to wait till last are head butting your legs, nibbling your hands, coat, wellies and anything they can get their mouths on! I wish I could invent something that will hold all five bottles in a row so they can all feed at the same time. Maybe some sort of body coat with five little slits in, then I could go on all fours with the teats of the bottles hanging down and pretend I am a ewe? Hmmm, maybe not. Frank got on my lap tonight, so cute. Mustn't get fond of him though. :(

Four journeys to the farm then today, dog walks and main feeds on two of those, and then just the lambs for the other two which is easy. Thoroughly enjoyed it, hope the weather holds for the week.

Only other thing I did today was to go round to Helens to try to help her husband download some music onto his new phone, bloody complicated though, he's bought an Erickson phone, and talk about fiddly! He's going to take it back into the shop tomorrow and see how to do it. We got the music onto the phone, somewhere, but can't get it to play back through the music player, it's definitely on the phone because we could play it back when you plugged into the USB on the pc, bloody thing! Why couldn't they have bought a Nokia, so easy to do. Tsk.





Frank

Saturday

Weather horrendous today, lashing down, gale force winds, and gusts that nearly blew us over. So back to normal for Wales then!

So this week has flown by again. Still got a terrible cough, been waking me in the night with uncontrollable hacking, just can't get rid of this, so fed up, but thankfully, as I've said before, I don't feel ill with it, apart from a bit exhausted through broken sleep patterns. I've been going up to the farm for four or is it five days now, to do the lamb feeds so that they will get used to me, well no problems there, they are all such pigs. It's going to be very hard for me to accept that at least one of the lambs will end up in Kate's freezer, he's a ram, and they have named him Frank. I asked how they could do that, like get fond of something and name it, and fuss and pet it and then kill it, but she didn't really have an answer. I guess some people are just able to do it. I couldn't ever. Glad I don't like/eat lamb, never have, never will. So there's five to feed, six lambs been born altogether, but one is getting fed exclusively by its mum. They are all in the barn which is great. I have to do four feeds, 8am 12, 4pm 8pm so it will be an early start for me for the next week, will have to be up about 6.30 I guess to get my bird feeders sorted and the other pets before I go. Will only take Emma for one of the sessions, she won't be able to do more than one walk with Barra and Skye, she's struggled this week as it is, and we've only been doing shortish ones up the field.

Kate made me a wonderful vegetable pie to use up some of her stuff in the fridge, she was going to give me just the veggies but knew I wouldn't cook anything, lol, she knows me better than I thought, they would have gone to the guinea pigs! She's also given me loads more, I have two leeks! I've never cooked a leek in my life, and probably won't now either. I don' think the gp's will like them though..

Bit of excitement on the dating sites. I joined another one this week, and have had four guys message me in the last day, two of whom seem very nice, have chatted with one all afternoon, at least these ones have something in common, he's interested in red kites, the other one has a smallholding, and the third guy is a farmer! Will see what transpires, not going to rush into anything like meeting or giving them my phone number for a while!

I made an interesting discovery quite by chance today too, and am quite excited - I had an email from the RSPCA about something, and I saw a link to join their facebook site. Well when I got to that page, I found out there is a monkey sanctuary in Wales - I had no idea of it's existence, I only knew about Monkey World in Devon. This one is just outside Swansea, so only about an hour away. You can sponsor a Chimp for £25 a year which gives you unlimited free admission, and you can volunteer to help etc. Quite keen although I'm not sure about that, I can't commit to definite days/times really, more on a casual basis, but I think as soon as I have a nice free day, I will go take a look and suss out the situation. Yeah! This is the place, take a look, maybe sponsor a poor monkey... http://www.cefn-yr-erw.co.uk/

Other things today...

Went to the farm to help with the lamb feeding. Kate wants me to go up every day till they go on Sunday so that they lambs get used to me. There's still 5 to do, and they are having a lot more milk now. Seems like I'm going to be busy, well not in time really, but trips up there. They are on 5 feeds a day now. She is hoping to cut it down to four, but as she says, they are only little and 12 hours between the last feed at night and the first one the next morning is a long time. It may mean me going up there in the dark. Don't know if I fancy it to be honest, but what can I say. Being up there at 8 am is going to be hard enough, then 12, then 4, then again at 8pm. Bloody hell. If the weather is nice though I may stay up there after the 12 oclock one till 4, will have to take a book to read. Blimey! Don't think they've got wireless internet.....

Anyway, we took the dogs for a short walk, but as I'd only been out an hour, and the weather was glorious, I decided to pop to the village and get some more bird food, and take Emma down the river. It was fabulous, didn't need a coat.

I have a question of the BBC weather department - where the hell do they get their information from? I've just looked at there FAQs but it doesn't explain how they have been showing the symbol for "heavy rain" and wind speeds of 35mph for my village all day. It's been a beautiful, sunny, windless day. I think they just pick pieces of paper out of a hat and publish what it says on the website.

Heh, Emma's wet footprints on the path









Rooks nests' high up in the trees

Some good news today...

....about the proposed wind farm. Red Squirrels, a protected and endangered species, have been discovered in the forestry near the area that they intend ripping out trees to build on. We already knew about this, and had been hoping it may help our case.
Today, the front page of our local paper, the entire front cover actually, is about it, and Iolo Williams has spoken out about it.



He has been filming in the forest for his tv show and says "The Countryside for Wales has put a lot of money into a projet about red squirrels. I would hope they would keep an eye on what's going on at Blaengwen. If the wind farm does impinge on them in any way, they should throw it out." (For those non Welsh or not-into-wildlife-programmes readers, Iolo is a very well know tv personality here.)

Carmarthenshire Council wind farm case officer David Poulter stated "There is no suitable habitat for red squirrels on the Blaengwen wind farm site."

Well excuse me sir, but Iolo has disproved otherwise. You are talking out of your proverbial arse. Red Squirrels live in coniferous forests. You know, like big trees with pine needles and fir cones? They eat the seeds. The sort of trees that you will be hauling down in their hundreds to make way for the roads to the wind farm, and where the turbines are being built.

Nuff said. Fingers crossed for us folks. Yay for the red squirrel.

It's a mouse, not a hoggy

Just a few moments ago, cute, but not what we were hoping for eh? I will try the cam round the back again next week. I think it was about now that the one turned up last March. Wonder if any of the ones I marked have made it?

Yeah, here's another one whilst I'm still in the mood

Paced around a while and thought no, I can't stay here and do housework today, make the most of the weather. Dropped into town and got some bird food in Wilkinsons, damn they've put up the price of the sunflower hearts now though, so I don't think it's cheaper to buy them in there anymore. Also didn't have any dried mealworms, so was a bit of a disaster really. Just got the fat balls which are still a bargain. Ran into Helen and family and had a quick chat, then went on down to the Castle Green Woods, the Woodland Trust place that I've blogged about before. It's the one where all the bluebells are so fantastic a bit later on. Took a picnic with me, but I was intending to just go round the reservoirs to be honest, I get a bit fed up with the same old place, been there 4 days out of the last 6!

So we had our John West Tuna light lunch and an apple (I know how to live it up) and then set off up the steep slope. I swear it gets steeper every year. I don't know how I managed to get up there at all before I lost weight, it was a struggle as it was.

Anyway, Emma had a good time, she likes it there better than the reservoirs, even though there's no water. Plenty of mud though. I took a few pics but only had the Nokia with me so not brilliant, but thought I'd take some spring flower shots too, spotted the first bluebell of the year, even earlier than last year I think. Also some wood anemones, meadow buttercups, the gorse all in bloom and primroses.

Came home and Alfie had gone awol from the cage again. Crawled around the living room calling him and looking under the sofa, behind the tv etc and finally spotted him sitting on the kindling basket under the guinea pigs' table! He seems to have a thing about fire, he was on the guard in the hearth yesterday. He didn't used to bother coming out of the cage, but I think he's trying to follow Chippy around now, he goes and sits on the guinea pig cage a fair bit. Shame that he can't fly, feel so sorry for him.

Oh I forgot - seen my first hedgehog of the year. Squashed flat in the road about 100 yards away from here. Poor little sod. I hate that so much, poor bloody thing survived hibernation, and killed within a day or so of waking up.

Some more stuff

Don't faint, blogging twice this close together. You can tell I've been stuck indoors a lot today. Not because of the weather I might add, the "oh its going to be terrible with all the snow" forecast was a load of crap as usual. We had a very heavy rain shower for about 10 minutes around 9am this morning. Other than that, its been dry, sunny and pretty damn good for a few days now. Cold wind, but in the sunshine pretty warm.

So I took Emma round the park before lunch today, so that I could sit on my backside and watch the footie all afternoon! I have sadly put a curse on gorgeous Pepe Reina though I think, I only really wanted to watch to see him, and the poor guy had a bloody awful game, and he made some terrible errors, resulting in ManU winning 3-0! Oh no.

Yesterday I bought a new photo printer, one of the little ones that you can do normal sized prints from without a pc. I had one up until a few days ago, that I bought from Irene a couple of years back. But the bloody thing would never work properly, always "paper jam" or the bluetooth wouldn't work, didn't find my pc, or any one of ten other reasons to wind me up. So it met its demise on Thursday. I had one of my really, really bad temper tantrums. I just wanted to do a quick couple of photos to put in a friend's letter. After about 30 minutes and still no photo, I threw it onto the bedroom floor as hard as I could, and then stamped on it over and over, and eventually, it was in a million pieces on the floor. Boy did I feel good! My temper does worry me sometimes though, I didn't used to have one, not a physical violence one anyway. Oops. The printer cost me £50 when I bought it from Irene, the new one to replace it, which isn't as high spec, has cost me £40. Other times, I have smashed up two garden strimmers, which cost about £20, so I am getting more expensive.

Still coughing well, have taken the antibiotics for a day now, I woke at 3am with a fit this morning, couldn't stop for over half an hour. Had to get up and walk about for a while. Managed to get off eventually though and woke about 8am. Getting a bit fed up with Emma, although it's probably not her fault, but she seems to have a bladder problem, she keeps weeing in the night now, three times in the last 10 days or so, I will seriously have to consider shutting her in the kitchen at night I guess, she's going to ruin my carpets. :(

I have moved the webcam back to the front porch for a while, as the dish of food was empty this morning, so am wondering if a hedgehog has been around, I will have to sort it out so that I can run the two again, because the majority of hoggies were at the back feeder last summer of course. I've had the cam running all afternoon, and have had some lovely little birdies coming. Two robins, loads of blue and great tits, Mr and Mrs Blackbird, and the lovely little Pied Wagtail.

Oh by the way, I have disabled anonymous comments again, I did put it in a comment the other day, but I seem to have picked up another moron. So if my original anonymous friend, whose comments I have enjoyed over the past months wishes to still comment now and then, I'm afraid you will have to register with google, doesn't mean you have to blog, and you can still be anonymous as such, but it's up to you. I'll miss ya though if you don't, loved some of your stuff with Damien, still laugh when I think about knitting him a hat, lol!

OH MY GOD!

Sorry if this is too much info for some of you, but something really strange and quite spewy has just happened.

I just went in the bathroom for a wee and I saw something in the water of the toilet pan. I stopped dead and it was an earthworm! Still very much alive, and exploring the pan, I use that bloo stuff too, so how that didn't kill it I don't know. So I had to pull up my sleeve and get him out!

I've taken him outside and he's safely in nice soft soil under a primrose, so that a bird doesn't get him after all those efforts.

But the thing is, how the hell did he get in the toilet? I mean, no way have I passed him! Or has he fallen off me when I was last in there. Or crawled up the loo pan from the bathroom floor. That can only mean he has come in through the cistern overflow I think, but hell, what are the chances of that????? As I say, OMG! Lucky I saw him, I guess most people wouldn't have bothered though....

Time flies....

...when you're having fun, so don't know what my excuse is this week. I still have the cold and cough from hell. Cough cough cough. If I had a pound for every cough I've done this week, I would be able to buy my dream house I think. I have never, ever had a cough this bad. Every morning as soon as I wake, I can't get rid of the irritation for over an hour, just cough cough cough. Same in the evening. And I've had several coughing fits out in public, so embarrassing, when I just can't stop and my eyes stream, and I just want to die. I went to the doctors on Tuesday, they fitted me in at the end of surgery, still had to wait 45 mins though, she gave me some strong medicine and a prescription for antibiotics, but said try not to take them unless you really have to. Well today I decided I really have to, I can't go on with this any longer. My chest is burning like I've been hit with a shovel. I had two choking fits in Tescos whilst I was waiting for the prescription! Apart from that I actually don't feel terrible, I mean I've still be able to get on and do most stuff this week thank god. But there is no way I can go to mum's like this. I couldn't face the drive up there, imagine if I have a coughing fit on the M4, I would have to pull over on the hard shoulder till I could get rid of it, which normally is about 10 minutes of eye popping choking! Apart from that, mum would be worried sick, and I don't want to give her anything either, and the weather forecast is crap. So I now decided that I will go up the second week of April all being well, after I've done my stint at the farm. Give myself time to recover hopefully.

I've bought mum a few bits and pieces to send her for her birthday next weekend, so will get that off to her on Tuesday.

So what else have I been up to this week? Well had a few bits of excitement with the dating site I joined, seemed a really nice guy who was interested in me, not bad looking, sent me his photo's in an email, but I was wanting to get something straight before we decided to correspond or meet, and he hadn't ticked the box to say he liked animals. As everyone knows, they are the major part of my life, and felt there would be little point in going any further if he wasn't at all interested. So I sent him a lovely little polite email stating just that. Got a brief answer back saying it sounded like I have a "menagerie" and he'd best leave me to it, as it would "cause problems in the future" Bloody arsehole! I didn't say his kids would "cause problems in the future" even though I felt it. Oh well, his loss. Lucky escape for me. That's the second time that's happened to me. There's a very sweet Spanish guy in London who is keen but I don't want to get involved there, he's too far away, and don't want the complications. I'm giving it a rest for a while on there I think. I shall just carry on dreaming of my ideal man, he must be out there somewhere, in the meantime, he who must not be mentioned anymore is still always in my thoughts, Emma sent him an Easter Egg this week too, which I thought was very sweet of her. Wonder if he did too? Will no doubt find out in the course of time. *wink*

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the hospital. It's not everyday that I get two different guys groping my legs, so that was an added bonus I suppose. However, the reasons were less than erotic. I have varicose veins. I also have awful, ugly swollen blubbery legs which ache like hell very often. So the end result was yes, I have a problem with my veins, yes they can do them, but they can't guarantee that it will reduce the swelling round my calves and ankles, but it may well do. I have to go back in three months to let them know what I want to do. I came away armed with a leaflet setting out all the pro's and con's. The worst bit is it's normally done under a general anaesthetic, last time I had that, I was sick for 12 hours non-stop when I came round. Secondly, you may need to stay in overnight, and even if not, you need someone to be at home with you for 24 hours after. Also sounds like there's a lot of pain involved, and can't do a lot of stuff for up to 4 weeks afterwards. I shall have to have a long hard think about it. I would dearly love to have legs that look a bit less disgusting, I'd love to go swimming for instance, but wouldn't be seen dead in a swimsuit at the moment. Wish you could wear leggings at the pool, that would be okay!

Anyway enough really, I can't think of much else apart from the weather of course, which is okay, better than they forecast, typical March winds/April Showers, very windy actually, almost as bad as the so-called storms we were to have. Not cold though and lots of blue sky and sunshine today. Took Emma round the reservoirs, the wind scared the life out of her though, lol. The Goosanders are still about.

Another exciting update

Well it's been quite an eventful week one way and another. I've decided that I shall only blog weekly now unless I do something different to all the other blogs that I've done over the past two years. I mean, how many photos of the same places and things are there to take?

The major event I am not prepared to blog about, but some people already know. It's kind of private really, I was highly excited, and then down in the dumps but life must go on.

So I joined a few dating sites, and the photo of my gorgeous self has attracted quite a few male admirers, but none of them match up to my very high standards as yet, (Must have French accent, shaved head and love of animals...) but undeterred, I shall carry on. I have even plucked up the courage to send messages to guys I found attractive, one of which sent a very polite reply but more or less said not interested, and the other one last night, well I was tempted I can tell you, he is bloody gorgeous, lives too far away though, but he was only interested in one thing! I was chatting to one guy last night all evening from my old stomping ground in Hertfordshire, but I don't think that will lead anywhere, he seems nice enough, but not what I'm looking for obviously, I don't intend to move back to the rat race in the near future. One bloke is very keen, again, not my type, too old - I don't act my age, and I don't think I look it too, so I am more interested in guys my age or younger, not an OAP! We shall see how it goes.

Other than that, just done normal stuff, dog walking, shopping.

To finish, I am sitting here not very happy, apart from the fact that it's now pissing with rain, which in a way is a blessing, as it gives me an excuse to sit here and do nothing, I feel like crap. It started yesterday morning, with a sore throat and croakiness, which has progressed overnight to the sorest throat I've had in years and years, burning eyes, shivers, headache, and an upset stomach now due to the fact that I had one sodding Lemsip to try and ease the symptoms. I can't even swallow a sip of water without wincing in agony. I have no voice, having to whisper hoarsely to the birds and Emma today. I'm not too bad just sitting here, but once I try and get up to do anything, feel sick and just want to sit down again. Once again my plans for the weekend are F**ked. I was going up to Kate's this afternoon with Emma, to see the little lamb she is bottle feeding, and that I will be looking after for 6 days at the end of month/beginning April. No chance of that now. And I had planned on going to mum's for Easter, probably leaving next Wednesday for a few days, but if this gets any worse or doesn't just bugger off by Monday altogether, I won't be going. I won't be able to get everything done before going, feeling like shite as I do now. Eileen is on standby anyway, bless her, she doesn't mind when or for how long so at least that's not a problem.

Watch this space.

Guess I'd better do an update....

Well haven't done all that much as usual this week, but seem to have been busy all the same.

Can't remember what order these things occurred or what day, but still.

Okay, the old lady from next door came round to see me, to thank me for filling her peanut feeders. I've been doing these for a while, they are hanging in her front porch, alongside mine, and it makes no difference to me whether the birds eat from hers or mine. Anyway, she gave me a beautiful brooch (pic below) to thank me, I didn't want to accept it but she insisted, said she'd nobody to leave it to when she's dead and gone! Well I have no idea if it's real, if so, it will be very valuable, maybe her son won't be best pleased if he finds out, but anyway, what a lovely thing to do, she gave me a big hug and a kiss, and I now feel terrible that I was always a bit distant with her. I think she genuinely has a heart of gold.

Erm, what else? Oh yeah, I joined a few online make friends/dating sites just to see if I can find some new people and get a bit of a social life going. One of the sites seems very popular, and as soon as my profile went live, I got inundated with messages from guys! Spent all evening replying to them, one guy is in Sydney, Australia and wants to meet me when he comes to the UK at the end of March. Erm, not sure about that lol! I sent a couple of messages to two blokes I thought looked ok, one lives very near, and he wants to meet for a coffee sometimes, so am thinking on that one, would rather chat a while first I think, although not much can happen in Marks & Sparks coffee shop I guess, but want to make sure we have enough to chat about first really, I am a bit shy and awkward when I first meet people unless I feel comfortable with them. I mean I've been going to that Windfarm Group thing for almost a year now, and I still go bright red if I speak up about something. Tsk.

Talking of which, last night's meeting was very interesting, the longest one for ages too, we had a woman come along who has recently been victorious in leading a group fight against a wind farm planned near them, and the council have pulled the plug and refused, they fought for 4 years. It was to be very near where I used to live too, a couple of villages along, but in a different county, maybe their council is a bit more sympathetic. I received an email from one of our group this week containing a link to a video showing a wind turbine in Denmark shattering only a couple of weeks ago, it was horrendous to watch. You will have to copy and paste this if you want to watch it too, I can't remember how else to do it now!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cdd_1203701257

Diet wise, a bit pissed off this week, I ate the cake that Kate made me, it was only a small chocolate cake, about the size of a muffin I guess, and the next day I bought a small ring donut. That's the only cheats I've done all week, still drinking loads of water, and I haven't lost anything at all this week. Sigh. It saddens me to think that maybe I have got to eat less than 1000 calories a day for the rest of my life if I'm not to put on any weight. Which means if I want to eat healthily, ie with two proper meals a day, I can never, ever eat a cake or a choccie bar again.

Today went and spent a fortune as usual in Wilkinsons on pet and wild bird food, I love that place, it's the cheapest for lots of stuff I used to buy elsewhere. I then took Emma to Llansteffan on the beach, but boy, was it a bit blowy, we had a fair walk though, and then sat in the car and had our tuna light-lunch and an apple. I threw the core to a Jackdaw, and it was so amusing to see him with it, he was so proud walking along with this huge core in his beak!

We have bad weather forecast for the whole of the UK for next week. Hope it doesn't happen, really strong winds which are such a worry to me with the aviary, and snow and sleet. Great. Just when spring appeared to be settling in nicely. Oh well hope they will be wrong, today we were supposed to have sleet too, and it's been beautiful, blue skies and sunshine all day.

The day after

Well the pain went, but still felt a bit groggy when I got up. Dizzy and a bit sick, but on the whole not too terrible. I have a slight headache which won't go but hasn't stopped me from doing stuff really, although I did feel rough enough to go back to bed for an hour around lunchtime. I think maybe I've caught a bug, because I was alternating between sweating and shivering all through the night and had a bad night's sleep.

So I had a wonderful surprise this morning. Kate phoned to see if I was okay, and if she could get me anything, and to phone them instantly if I needed any help. Anyway, I was just sort of getting dressed, and there was a knock at the door, and there was Kate laden with cards, presents and a birthday cake she'd made for me! A little chocolate cake with a candle. She had a present and card for me from my other friend Helen, too. Unfortunately it was a box of chocolates, and the card said "Sod the diet!" I was gobsmacked because I didn't get them anything, I gave Helen a card when I knew it was her birthday, but Kate was away in Spain for hers last year, so never gave it a thought. I was quite overcome, I really didn't think we were that kind of friends. Feel thoroughly ashamed of my negative thoughts in that they hadn't contacted me in ages because I'd not been to the windfarm meeting since before Christmas.

Anyway, eventually, I managed to eat something, only had a bowl of rice pudding all day yesterday, and that absolutely crippled me last night. Had a light lunch, cup a soup and some crispbreads and a few grapes. Then Emma knows it's normally time to go out so I decided to take her to my favourite place by the river as I'd be unlikely to come across anyone else down there at lunchtime, and hoped I'd be okay to walk with her.

No problems, the fresh air did me good, took a few photos, it was a lovely day again today, and came home and thought I'd get stuck into a bit of clearing up in the garden, lots of dead leaves laying on my borders, hiding my snowdrops, and I did some pruning. It was lovely out there, yay, it's spring!

I looked in my hedgehog box just to see if anything had been in there, and saw a poor little dead mouse. It hadn't been dead long, didn't smell, and his little fur was wet. Poor little bugger, couldn't see any marks on him, maybe he died of old age or cold. Took a couple of photos but they're a bit blurred I'm afraid, the Nokia doesn't like close-ups much it seems. I buried him in the edge of Diddy Boy's grave. :(











lots of snowdrops

the heather has been alight by the looks of it

Nice daffs on the bank

I bought these at the Botanical Gardens yesterday

I thought this was so lifelike, I couldn't resist it