Early morning shadows

The day started early. We had to be at Murberget, the County Museum, at 8 o'clock for our bird watching tour. My main blip was taken as we listened to our ornithologist leader. Most of the birds we saw were seen in the first half-hour at the actual museum, which has lots of deciduous trees and large open areas. Once we walked into the forest we saw very few birds though we heard a few. One of the participants asked why it was called "bird watching" when we spent most of our time "bird listening". The willow warbler (SV lövsångare) was the bird we heard. I enjoy watching birds in the garden and have learned a few names but it was a bit fascinating to watch the real experts.
Once that was done we took ourselves home to a coffee, grapefruit, and croissant brunch.
As we got home Rikard was cutting the grass for his mother-in-law and as he drove the lawnmower home I intercepted him and explained about the ditch-stranded camper van. He immediately got his tractor and five minutes later the camper-van was back on the road. A tractor is a wonderful tool - everyone should have one!
I did a few garden jobs and as I was wandering around I took a couple of pictures of our flowers. One is the plum blossom, the other is a picture of the cowslips (Primula veris) Jan planted up the side of the stone steps. This year they are very well established and giving a lovely display.
The sunny day turned really cold as a sea mist blew in and cut of the sun, leaving us suddenly in a very cold damp garden! I took this as a signal to go inside and get my beer (ginger beer) into bottles. Having already bottled 46 litres of beer a few weeks back I was running out of bottles so I had to use some very old (and rather manky) bottles that have been gathering dust, literally, in the barn for 15 years. It was a fairly major job to clean and sterilise the bottles but it got done in the end and I now have 69 litres of beer sitting in the hall. Most of them will soon be moved to the cellar.
There have been too many early starts this week, at least for a night-owl like myself so I'm fairly tired. I'm also relieved that tomorrow I can sleep late, with my first activity lunch with the other Left Party members before the council meeting in the afternoon.
It has been a good day - camper van back on firm ground, beer in bottles, robo-mower out mowing - a good walk through the woods near town -and finally a delicious toasted sandwich for tea tonight.