Grazing

Having chased the bird/mouse/lizard eating cat out of the garden this morning, it was gratifying to see all the birds enjoying the new "lawn".  And after the blackbirds and sparrows had had a go, I spotted this hoopoe enjoying the new facilities.  I am very fond of hoopoes.  There was a picture of one on the front of my parents' bird book when I was young, and they seemed impossibly exotic to me.  There is at least one pair living round here - and I often see them on the road in the morning, but it turns out that when the bird book says "feeds on short grass" it really means it.  I hope they'll become regulars now that we have some "lawn" for them.

In other news, very hot.  Not as hot as where Mr B is (42 degrees - ouch) but hot enough to make working outside a self-limiting activity interspersed with inside periods to cool off.  Some clearing done of this year's invasive weed (sticky grass) - there's always one dominant weed, depending I suppose on what time of year I have chosen to clear things out.  At least sticky grass is easy to pull up (better than last year's thistles).

Also, the car now has a new battery and starts like a dream (which it never has done since we've owned it).  And yes, I do know that it will break down tomorrow in some unimaginably fatal way, but today I enjoyed the feeling of driving a reliable, fixed car.  

I also caught up on the weekend's blipping, if you care to click back.  Lots of words, not much photography.  Plus ça change...  (Ooh, now there's a good journal name for me - what do you think? Should I change from 'Manual Transition' - which seemed like a good idea at the time, but is frankly a bit lame?)