Today’s guest picture, from the camera of my brother, shows my sister-in-law Catherine enjoying a well earned rest on a walk near Leicester.
It was another very reasonable day today, suitable for cycling and lawn mowing but natural sloth and the demands of other business meant that I neither cycled nor mowed. Getting up late and having some tasks which needed to be done in the town seemed to effortlessly fill up the morning, although I did find a moment to look out of the kitchen window to watch a family of starlings arrive at the fat bell feeder.
Junior arrived last and set up camp on the top of the feeder and indulged in some heavyweight whining until it was fed.
It is always a surprise to see birds feeding young which are the same size as the adults.
The many jackdaw visitors have proved so adept at taking my peanut feeder off the pole and smashing it on the ground to shake the peanuts out that they have bent it beyond repair and I had to get a new peanut feeder when I was doing my business in the town. I hope that it will be more jackdaw resistant.
Most of the rest of day was spent driving to Newcastle airport to meet Granny off the ten to three plane from London and then finding that she hadn’t even taken off by the time that she was supposed to have arrived and subsequently waiting to greet her when she landed at half past five.
This gave us more than enough time to visit a nearby garden centre and buy some interesting cheese (as one does at a garden centre) and then drive around until we found a food shop to buy something for our evening meal.
The airport doesn’t have an area where the public can watch planes arriving and leaving so the only picture I took was of something that hitherto I had only read about….
…a car fuelling up with electricity.
Granny, who is youthful 97, was exceedingly cheerful for someone who was two and a half hours late on a one hour flight and we drove home in good humour and at a very respectable rate of knots as the traffic was very light.
There was still enough light for me to whip round the garden when we got back. The garden is looking quite patriotic with plenty of blue and white at the moment.
Other roses are adding a contrast.
We noticed quite a lot of Special Grandma roses for sale at the garden centre near the airport and were not surprised to see that there is a variety called Special Mum too. These marketing men know their business. I was slightly saddened to note that there did not seem to be a variety even for an ordinary dad, let along a special one. Such is life.
I was surprised to see a frog still out on the lily pads this late in the evening.
We got Granny settled in and enjoyed an excellent evening meal of the food we had bought while we were waiting for her so it hadn’t been time wasted entirely.
The (almost) flying bird of the day is a harassed parent feeding the demanding young starling.
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The flowers are beautiful. I’m surprised that birds can lift that feeder off it’s hook.
I have never seen how they do it as they wait until my back is turned.
So I wondered if you bought garden items at the food shop since you bought food (cheese) at the garden centre?
No but I am sure that we could have found something if we had looked hard enough.
Flowers are looking fine. Glad Granny arrived okay. She must be a strong 97.
She is a wonder.
The young birds of any species are non-stop eating machines. It’s a wonder that the parents don’t die of exhaustion trying to keep the young fed.
They look so terrifying with their gaping mouths that I am amazed that the parenting instinct is strong enough to keep the adults coming back.
Beautiful images, Tom.
Thank you, Mike.
Sorry about the delayed flight though glad you bought some nice cheese. Your flower photographs are a delight and I loved the frog as always.
Cheese is my favorite food, I can easily make a meal of it along with some crusty bread or suitable cracker. 🙂 Glad your guest arrived safely and I hope you enjoy your time with her. Those delphiniums are real eye-poppers! The Wren and Special Grandma are lovely. Thanks for the frog!
The appearance of many small cheese makers in the north of England and the South of Scotland in recent years has been a great boon to a cheese fancier like me.
Beautiful flowers. Sorry about the delayed flight.
These corvids are tinkers aren’t they – biting the hand that feeds them! The flowers are gorgeous as always
They are not a popular bird with many in the town.
I’m glad granny wasn’t too put out by her flight delay. The car refuelling on electricity is a new one on me too. Wonder how much it costs compared to petrol? The delphiniums are beautiful, I love blue in the garden.
They are cheaper to run but the batteries are very expensive to replace. With some makers, you lease the batteries.