Attitude

Attitude is what this hen blackbird has.  She's dominating the other blackbirds, male and female,who are coming to the garden to feed on the overripe apples that we put out.  The males don't take her on at all, but there is another hen who is determined to have her share, and the two are in a constant struggle for supremacy (see the two of them in the extra).  This one is winning, she's fanning her tail and flicking her wings out, and she does have some time in between squabbling to feed herself.  There's plenty of apples for all of them, but I suppose the point isn't sharing, it's protecting your food resource for as long as possible.

I discovered in the early hours of this morning that there is a plus side to having to get up to answer a call of nature.  I heard running water, and found the old loo on the first floor landing was pouring water onto the floor.  The cistern porcelain had cracked, and water was gushing out.  Downstairs it was coming through the ceiling onto the kitchen floor.  I turned the water off, put bowls down to catch the water that was still leaking from the cistern and to catch the drips in the kitchen, and finally mopped up all the water.

If I hadn't woken up we would have had a ceiling down, and the kitchen would have been a write-off.  The leaking ceiling missed the cookery books, the compact discs, the rug and the coats that were on chair backs.  It was a minor miracle.

Less miraculous was the national supplier of gas that also provides a HomeCare service.  They told me help would arrive in 4 hours, ten hours later it still hasn't.  But we've improvised a solution that is keeping the ballcock valve closed and allowing us to have a water supply.  So all is well.  All that was lost was two hours sleep.