Positively the last scarecrow!

I did not intend to photograph another scarecrow for blip, but this angry bird, who appeared just in time for the fete, was too good not to include. It is sitting on the post box beside the village shop.

This morning I worked on editing photos from yesterday's Stepping Stones Festival for the Hadrian Singers.

This afternoon I emptied tubs from last year's planting and started to pot up some of them. It was drizzling gently all the time. The garden was fresh from the rain and the birds were singing joyfully. It was such a lovely time to be there although I gave my back a bit of a pull from barrowing compost around.  We have our own compost so it's a bit uneven in quality, but overall crumbly and moist.

It seems odd to be in this little bubble of pleasure here, when so many people are struggling in various ways. The latest shooting in the US is devastating. It's very interesting to see how it is reported, with some of the press concentrating on the fact that the perpetrator is Muslim. It must be hard to cope with the cognitive dissonance if you are vehemently anti-gay and anti Islamic.

On another depressing note, I heard retired people from Sunderland being interviewed about the EU referendum on Radio 4. They all wanted to leave because they fear immigrants, who they said were criminals and worse. Sunderland - my home town - has few immigrants living there. They admitted their views were not from direct experience, but what they had heard. Very sad and conerning. This vote may be very close.