Butterflies

There were lots of butterflies about on our walk today, and I got quite a few shots I liked so I've used one for my main blip.

A day of missed photographic opportunities though. For once I had the right camera and right lens but was too slow to react to (i) the heron we surprised down by the lake (1st extra) and (ii) 'something else' perched on a fence while we were looking up trying to locate a skylark (2nd extra). At first we thought it was a lark but now I am not so sure.

In other news we visited the bathroom supplier this morning and have 99% decided what we need to buy for our bathroom refit, so that was good.

Not so good was that I phoned the probate helpline this afternoon to get an update as it has been 10 weeks since we applied and it is supposed to take up to 8 weeks. After holding on for over 30 minutes I got through and was told it was on stop as they had not received the IHT421 form from the inheritance tax office. Yes you have I said, so she checked and said so we have, you are quite right. However, because the application was on stop we will now have to wait at least 2 months more before they can provide the grant. Currently they are dealing with March 15th applications. There is nothing that can be done about this. They also have a backlog of over 10,000 emails which explains why they never replied to mine. We are now concerned about the house sale and would you believe it we got a call from the estate agent this afternoon to say the survey was now fixed for next week, so it is all taking off now the stamp duty holiday is finished. He seemed to think the probate delay would not be an issue, so we hope he is right.

One year ago
A Bug's Life