So what have I been up to since my doggie companion returned to her home?
The Good!
The day after my visitor's return I went to visit my mother who lives in West Sussex. It's a beautiful county and one I'm very fond of. For a change we had blue skies on the Monday with lots of sunshine. As usual we were watching the birds in the garden when I noticed a very small bird pecking on the grass. A Goldcrest - lovely spot but camera was in the car!
Much bigger visitors then came; five rooks visited and three jackdaws. A Collared Dove (looking as elegant as usual) then had a sunbathe in the Robinia tree and a little later a Rook took up a perch similarly. S/he was followed by a squirrel (one of the usual six!) but both Rook and Squirrel were a little camera shy.
The following day, being somewhat cold, I took Mum shopping and then eventually returned home.
The Bad!
It's (supposedly) Spring here in the UK. Cold, wet and windy with temperatures around the 12 degrees centigrade mark but feeling much colder in the chilly strong wind! And there's no forecast as yet of any improvement over the next week or so.
Despite this, the plants and trees are springing into life and bringing so much wonderful colour to the garden. To me, spring is my favourite season of the year; or is it Autumn or Summer or Winter? I love the variety brought by all four seasons!
The Downright Stupid?
Well, as if you hadn't guessed, that's me! I have a petrol engine car which objected, most strongly, to having diesel fed into it. Doh! I never imagined when I went out with my daughter for some retail therapy at about 9.30 a.m. that I wouldn't be home until 7 o'clock that evening.
My breakdown recovery people arranged for Ultra-Evac to attend who drained out the diesel from the tank and replenished it with some petrol. I would not normally advertise a commercial company but I was so impressed with their operative, who was so helpful, considerate and informative, that I felt they deserved a mention. I do hope that you never need to use them or your own country's equivalent.
I'm now paranoid about putting petrol in the car and seem to check the pump about four times before I finally pull the trigger.
And a few pics....
Collared Dove
Shy Rook
and not quite so shy Grey Squirrel
Emerging buds of Acer Shirasawanum 'Aureum'
aka Golden Leaf Full Moon Acer
The leaves will become a deeper green through the summer
and in Autumn they will turn to oranges and yellows!
The Greater Pond Sedge has just started forming it's seed heads
which curently are black in appearance.
The seeds themselves will gradually break out of their
protective coating...
.. before they finally break free and are blown on the wind
to start new plants
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1 comment:
Just catching up with the blogs, I'm sorry to laugh at your mishap with the diesel, but if it makes you feel any better, I did the same thing in reverse. I'd only had my car a few weeks, put £20 of petrol in it before I realised I wasn't using the diesel pump. Luckily I didn't drive off the forecourt, RAC towed me to get the tank drained. Cost me £40, plus the £20 worth of fuel I had to pay for. And 3 hours of my time wandering around the town centre with my dog on a freezing cold day. Not much fun!
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