To sleep, perchance to drown

I fell asleep in the bath last night. I am not sure what that said about the week I have just had which was actually quite a good one. I had a very good session with one of our partner organisations sorting out the legalities of all our arrangements and getting them in writing and signed, a first for everyone. Not so successful with the local authority who are still trying to do us down at every turn. We opened a brand new service at their insistence on which they had received full costings and given verbal agreement. Now that commitments have been made to all the service users they have told us that we will only get two thirds the amount discussed and unearthed some correspondence dated 2006 which they say constitutes the basis of an agreement. We could just withdraw the service but that would not be fair on our clients who after all are the reason we exist in the first place.
Lots of movement on the bird front this morning including a warbler that remained completely unidentifiable beyond that. Blue tits on the birdtable and startlings and sparrows on the nut feeders so we still have some very confused feathered friends.

Skylarks

Another ornithological note from this morning. A very heavy frost and the peregrine flapped lazily from fence post to tree top, not warm enough to hunt and not happy at being disturbed. All the usual suspects like woodpeckers in full breeding plumage, but the really excitiing thing was the first skylarks displaying over the open meadow.
A lot of early golfers out this morning which was a surprise considering the heavy frost, I am surprised they could see their balls, if you see what I mean. We passed one looking hopefully along the banks of the stream but I think we both knew it had landed in the water. "Morning, bit early for a paddle" I greeted him - the reply was not particularly polite.
Returning home the garden is in a state of some confusion. There was a thrush on the patio clearing up some breadcrumbs thrown from the kitchen door whilst collared doves and blackbirds hunted for grain in the long grass. Blue tits taking crusts from the birdtable and starlings on the nut feeder, now that's not the way I understood it was supposed to be.
Much excitement last night. Mrs Claus rang from work to say the boss had not arrived and would I go and look for him. Boss is an unusual person to say the least and it was not beyond the bounds of possiblity that he may have had an altercation on the bus or some other problem. Casualty, police, house or the other way around. I chose the house first and found that he had overslept so no major harm done except to his work record.
I learnt a new skill this week. It sounds silly but I had never used one of those air pumps at petrol stations to pump up my tyres. One very soft tyre and two broken foot pumps (funny how the bits mysteriously disappear) left me with little choice. Son number one (bodybuilder) agreed to come with me to show me how it was done. Shell broken, BP massive queue so we ended up going along the 127 until we found a working one. PSI or bar? The machine was labelled in PSI and the car manual in BAR but fortunately the machine had a handy little converter. That just leaves the carwash to be a first but I really can't justify the expense when a bucket, sponge and leather will achieve the desired result for minimal outlay. That said, regular readers will know my record on car washing is about as good as a pig farmer and his tractor.
The answer might still be 42 but scrabble sets made out of bits of rock notwithstanding I still don't know the question. Others who know where I am coming from will know that multiples of 7 and 40 are critical but steer clear of 6

The peregrine is back

Yes that's right. It has moved to a new copse and now hunts closer to the golf course. The kestrel has moved further up the hill and can now regularly be seen hovering over the motorway verges as well as coming back into the conservation area.Today (Mrs Claus' birthday) we went to the new RSPB reserve at Rainham Marshes. A bright sunny day with a clear blue sky and a biting wind we had a very enjoyable morning in this new conservatin area. Lots of lapwing (2,000+ the warden said) and lots of ducks including Shelduck, possible Scaup and maybe a Shoveler but the glasses were not powerful enough (or were they just too far away) to claim positive identification. Another Little Egret fishing on the banks but no heron even though we hunted high and low. There was a surpising lack of wading birds, I would have thought the territory ideal for Curlew etc.When we went down onto the banks of the Thames later there were none to be identified there either even though the mud flats were exposed at low tide.Lunch at the Dog and Partridge - to be recommended but steer clear of the pickled onion! - and then to Tilbury Fort and a walk along the river path looking over to Gravesend.A very pleasant day as long as you don't think what the stock market is doing and whether we will end up paying the pension company rather then them paying us post 65. I have just rewritten our staff policy on mandatory retirement. The new law makes quite interesting reading.We have been looking back over the diaries to think of some questions for a fun quiz when we have our open house. No I am not telling you when, or where, or why - those who get an invitatio will know and those who don't (deliberately or failure of post) will have to wait to read about it later. We thought some of the questions might be linked to specific years and our holiday destinations. It came as a shock to count up that we have been to 21 countries (including the Principalities) since we got married and the boys have clocked up 4 more that we haven't been to - no expensive cultural trips in our day, a trip to a chalk quarry near Guildford for a geology field trip was about as good as it got. I seem to remember we went to St Albans once, got soaked to the skin and spent the rest of the day dripping inside the coach until it was time to go home. So you might want to ask a few leading questions about holidays next time we meet.I am sure there is more news but this is probably enough to be going on with

Clean again

After several months of good intentions and around 4,000 miles the car finally got a wash yesterday. I had almost forgotten what colour it was underneath all that mud. It is so embarrasing when you sit for hours in a queue of traffic and people looking at you must think "what a filthy car, doesn't he have time to wash it?" Well yes, I do have time but I fill it up with other things like contemplating the garden or looking for pigeons. When I cleaned the bird tables yesterday I threw the old grain onto the lawn, brushed down the tables and added fresh. This morning there were four pigeons marching across the line in parallel fashion, just as if they were on parade. They were joined by a small flock of starlings Every so often the head of a house sparrow would bob up in the grass. I keep it long because the books say it shakes off the snow much better that way. The snow must have taken one look at my long grass this week and decided to stay further north. Apologies to those who wanted to go sledging but I am sure all those commuting in London will thank me. Come to think of it "sledging" is the term they use for a particular kind of verbal abuse in Australian cricket so you should be ashamed of yourselves. For cricketing fans out there I am sure you will have noticed that the Australians can dish it out but they can't take it.

This morning's walk with Hugh saw us both lightly dressed as the forecast was for an increase in temperature and winds from the South. Well, I think it must have come direct from the South Pole, it was certainly cold enough. To warm up we had a romp with Bonnie and the whippets (that well known Havering pop group). Still no sign of the Peregrine but the Kestrel played catch me if you can, flying from tree to tree.

Spring is here, which means we will get a few sunny days before the icy wind and frost burns back any new growth. The katkins on the hazel are full of pollen and the pussy willow buds just beginning to break open. A lovely green woodpecker this morning with blazing red head markings who scuttled round the other side of the tree trunk as soon as I got the binoculars focused.

To CazChambers - thank you for your comments. Sorry to hear you are still "icky". Have you ever thought that chocolate might be the cause?? Hope R feels better soon, in plenty of time to give you everything you want for Mothers' Day