Spring visitors

if I could catch these blighters I would ......   (tell them about social distancing??)

ANTS

Two or three at a time appearing in kitchen. Been wiping down surface with smelly stuff, put sugar away (in fridge), checked outside wall for nest, still can't get rid.  

Mind you in checking outside I noticed kitchen drain blocked. There followed a smelly half day of digging out a blockage. So I should thank them for making me go round the corner of the house!!

There are worse things to worry about today.

Our Children on Whats App group this morning. All city dwellers and finding supermarkets empty and somehow they have all decided to become bread makers again as they are stuck at home so are swapping tips. Apparently no yeast around - we discussed sour dough!  They are channelling their great grandfather who was a Master Baker and ran a bakery all through WWII. 

Our other spring visitor was a surprise bird. A very young thrush appeared complete with some fluffy baby feathers. He stayed for some mealworms. Don't see many of them.

Sparrowhawk.

There was a bang and then sudden silence.
"Was that you?" I called upstairs to husband who was on the computer. "Have you fallen?
"What?"
I glanced out the front windows wondering why the flock of 30 odd hedge sparrows had stopped making their early morning noise at the bird feeder.  Here's why!!

The sparrow hawk either hit the front windows himself or frightened the sparrows into them (we often get bird strikes).  I rushed to get my digital camera and focus through the grubby window. (I have photo-shopped it to get a clearer picture from the dozen I rattled off).  It gave me an evil look (only 6 feet from the window) and stayed firmly on the body of the poor sparrow. 

 It only left when husband finally slopped out of the study and demanded loudly to know what I was going on about and opened the bedroom window above me.  Honestly,  he has hundreds of £s worth of special cameras and lenses up there and misses a golden opportunity for a special photo!

The rest of the flock of sparrows spent the day hiding in the thick hedge.

It's cake week!

Lounge ready, booked possession of the changer, and ......

last slices ready to go at 8 exactly for Great British Bake Off.  Must be catching as I sold a bakers apron on my Folksy site this week too!

Got through this cake fairly quickly as a big slice went next door to the elderly widower who helped us out with the back and forwards across the village to get the car MOT done early this morning as the local bus STILL can't get through the roadworks - week 8 of 7 week programme of works.

I should be exhausted by window cleaning as all the house windows are awful, but I looked out this morning and counted 4 ploughs = front, back, to the right, over to the left. All stirring up a cloud of dust as the soil is still very dry.  I am going to wait another week.