The Shape Of Things To Come

Spent almost all day doing stuff. After breakfast it was another batch of jam: rhubarb and ginger, then a mountain of ironing while watching an extra long film on DVD. I've ploughed through some council emails but not far enough to reply and it's just gone 9 pm... On the upside I've avoided all the obsequious stuff on TV.

While making jam there were three red Kites circling over the playing field our kitchen window overlooks. After watching them for a while and wondering if it was worth getting my camera and long lens out for a shot - it's usually not worth it, one of them even decided to descend on the park. Either it decided to eat some left overs from yesterdays big picnic in the park, or it decided to pick off a small child playing in the rain... As we can't actually see into the park - just over it I'm not quite sure what it eventually found. Plus I didn't want to burn the jam so I left it to it's business...

Today's blip, my 200th (sorry it's nothing special) is the bud of a love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) which will soon flower. I rather like this plant and it has one special ability which makes it common in our garden - slugs and snails don't like it. When we had our first garden we tried all sorts of flowers, some I liked some my better half liked. Most of the time the slugs and snails like them too and we didn't get very far. This was growing somewhere else in the village and it looked pretty enough, and Wilko we selling the seeds very cheaply so we got some. As it didn't get eaten we've had it ever since.

I'm on call tomorrow, so while I'm not stuck at home, I have to have my phone with me and need to be 30 minutes from my computer. So no bike riding in far off lands for me... We had hoped to cycle along the Basingstoke canal today but the rain rather put paid to that...