Drive by

Mr B's birthday today so we were all (bar the birthday boy) up bright and early to get everything ready. And then wait.... Eventually TallGirl and I gave up and went to the market without him, returning just in time for lunch and a just-got-up Mr B. Well, he did have a long drive yesterday.

Lunch was a surprisingly filling mackerel salad. The afternoon was begging to be lounged away, but instead we roused the troups and headed out for a walk along our nearest bit of the Roman Road which we hadn't been to for ages. The path was flanked with wild flowers - delicious honey-scented broom, wild roses, orchids, honeysuckle - a real feast for the senses. And many interesting birds to identify, including a huge bunch of red kites in trees and fields below the ridgeway path, giving us a great vantage point to watch them swooping and playing. On the way home I was able to take advantage of not being the driver for once to get a drive by shot of our more local kites, who have been hanging around for a few months in this sunflower field. There are about forty or so of them, though numbers seem to be reducing (perhaps the sunflowers are getting too tall) so it was a good chance to get a few shots to remember them by. Somehow this one just appealed to me.

Back home, birthday cake was lit and eaten at gouter time (though I rather wished I had remembered that some of the candles were those trick re-lighting ones before I hoisted them them out and discarded them on the bench ... happily we spotted them before too much damage was done), and dinner (duck and chips) was consumed outside. The kids then wanted board games but us grown ups (fearing a Monopoly session lasting until the wee small hours) suggested cards and so followed amusing team poker (TallGirl was on my team and I think should probably work on her 'poker face' a little more - shouting "ooh look!" with a big smile when we were dealt two aces and two kings was not what I was looking for in a team mate). Later some Stop The Bus, a game short enough that we could rattle through several noisy rounds and still get the kids in bed at a decent hour.