A Good Day....

Sometimes a day is just packed full of good things, like....

...our first trip of the year to the pick-your-own fruit farm and several pounds of fragrant red strawberries waiting to be turned into jam.  The best ones will be saved just for eating with cream or on pancakes.  As we are being brought some clotted cream from Devon tomorrow (thank you Midge!), I predict a cream tea with scones and fresh jam in the afternoon....mmmmm.....

We also bought fresh gooseberries, new potatoes, carrots and blueberries. Gooseberry crumble for pudding today!

I discovered this a few feet from our patio doors, tucked into the kiwi vine above our pergola.  We watched this nest being built a week ago and it was incredible how quickly the pair of blackbirds achieved it - just under two days.  However, they disappeared for the rest of the week and we thought they had come to their senses.  Today I could hear magpies cackling in the back garden and that usually means they are on the prowl waiting to kill something, so I went out to chase them off and checked above my head...there she was.  I think I might have blinded her as the flash was on for the first picture I took - hope that doesn't scare her off the nest.

I do wonder what goes on in their heads though - a couple of weeks ago their first batch of chicks fledged and I am sad to say my dog managed to kill one of them.  He found it in the geraniums and grabbed it, dropped it immediately when I yelled at him but the poor thing died of fright, much to my horror - right under where the new nest is.  So either blackbirds are incredibly stupid or there is a sub-plot whereby they are rubbing my nose in it and planning their revenge. I've watched 'The Birds' many times, I've seen what they are capable of....

I've been coveting a t-shirt I saw on Threadless a while back that had a pair of flamingoes on the front but was put off buying it by the price and postage.  It took a while for the penny to drop that a) I am an artist, b) I possess Inktense colour blocks that are colourfast on fabric (let's face it, I now have three boxes of the things!) and c) I could buy a plain white t-shirt for the princely sum of £4 on which to paint a flamingo of my own.  So here it is, half done and even if it goes horribly wrong, it can still be worn for slobbing round the house.

Other good things today...getting all the week's washing done and dry before it rained; having a cup of tea outside in the sun with a friend before it rained; managing two dog walks without getting rained on; bacon butties for lunch and having a peaceful afternoon.