Surprise, surprise

Well, that was a surprising day. The first surprise was waking up this morning to find that yesterday's worries were groundless: I didn't really feel any worse than I do on any other middling day, & even managed a brief venture into the garden. Hubby hasn't been feeling 100% though, & so we're pretty sure that I've been fighting a bug.

The second surprise was this fly on the apple blossom, which I hadn't realised was there until viewing my blip-haul on the big monitor; I did get one shot with two flies (of different species) on the blossom, but the focus was rubbish & so I went for this one instead. I have no idea what kind of fly this is, but do hope it doesn't turn out to be to apple trees what the Colorado beetle is to potatoes, as this is a Very Special Apple Tree: it was a house-warming present from a quite new (to me) cousin whom I hadn't known existed until we stumbled across one another in the course of our genealogy research, and, even though we've only ever met once, in the past couple of years of emails & phone calls we've become very close. When we moved house last year, she wanted to buy us a present & asked what we would like ..... well, I thought & I thunk, & then finally it came to me in a flash: one of our garden priorities had been to get an apple tree which produces more than one variety of apple, i.e. a family apple tree, & my cousin agreed that there couldn't be a more fitting present: planting a tree is such a symbolic thing to do, plus it was through our family tree that we met, and - as she pointed out - every time I eat an apple I'll be forced to think of her! It was going to be rather impractical for her to post me a tree, & so she sent me the money & we got it from our local garden centre; we had hoped to have a 'ceremonial planting' on the occasion of she & her husband's first visit to us, but the visit got delayed, the tree was already bought, & the weather was turning against us; and so hubby planted the tree, then when the visit finally took place we jointly placed some extra sods around it.

Anyway, the tree was until recently looking quite poorly, & we were beginning to worry that we were going to lose it ..... I'm therefore doubly pleased to see that it's now blossoming - in every sense of the word.

Things we've learned about Jack
He's a sock thief, & finds socks airing on the radiator irresistible - but he's very discerning, as he usually only steals one of each pair!

Update on the-guitar-with-an-annoying-buzz: it has been cured! No new pick-ups were needed, it turned out to be a wiring problem