Feeling Good...

It's been one of those days. The kind of day where the lyrics to 'Feeling Good' come to mind. The sun was in the sky, birds were flying high. I saw butterflies, blossom and there was indeed a breeze driftin' on by.

There's a tiny speck in that photo of blue skies and fluffy white clouds. It's my Heron. I got a fantastic view from underneath him as he circled leisurely for ages, until he went up and up and up and then my neck ached too much to carry on watching him. If it hadn't been for thoughts of grass snakes, stoats, voles and all manner of other wildlife I've seen there lately I'd have quite happily lay down and watched him until he disappeared. It's mesmerising watching Herons fly.

There were hundreds of those butterflies on that white blossomed hedgerow today. The smell was quite intoxicating too. Certainly more pleasant than Riley on the home straight with fox poo on his neck. Little rascal. Good job there is one final stream for a dunk before I take him home.

I picked up some random sock yarn in a charity shop a little while ago. A good quantity, about six balls and only £1.49. It's fascinating seeing the patterns emerge as I go. I think there will be enough yarn leftover for a second pair. I have a basic knitted in the round sock pattern (thanks D!) and when I'm feeling brave I'm going to get my dpns out and face my fear! In the meantime I'm crocheting a pair which I must admit, is easier than knitting when an old senile cat wants to bury herself in your lap. She seems to have forgotten I'm a dog person. She is a bit cute though.

I shouldn't have cast these socks on at all given the wips already needing my attention, but the other day M had a couple of short days in a row and we ran some errands and had a couple of coffees in our favourite Italian coffee place. Being freelance means his office goes everywhere with him and I find myself looking into the back of his iPhone for the duration of our coffees out. If he gets a moments peace from the phone he likes to do The Times crossword (leaving me to do the difficult ones) and so I tuck the sock and hook into my bag and whip it out everytime there's a spare ten minutes or so.

I did envy the dogs their lake swim today. They were hot and bothered and Harvey launched himself off the bank with a spectacular four legged landing about one metre out. It looked so inviting. Riley is more cautious but was persuaded in when he spotted a couple of Moorhens disappearing into the island reeds. He had absolutely zero chance of bothering them. I think they dive underwater when they feel threatened.

The lake has seemed devoid of all wildlife over the winter months but it's now attracting Canada Geese, Moorhens, the odd Mallard. Since it's only small, it'll be interesting to see if they can all inhabit the lake harmoniously.

Every year we have a pair of nesting ducks in the stream beside our house. They choose the same spot and anytime soon we will see the Mother with approximately twelve fluffy little ducklings. It's heartbreaking because as the weeks go by she will end up with maybe half that number. I'm pretty sure the foxes have a few and some may well slip down the drains when she leads them across the road. Some must get run over although I've never seen a dead one in the road. They are tame enough to stay and be fed brown bread. Where the happy couple take the surviving ones we just don't know. One day they just leave and don't come back. I hope they have a nice pond or lake somewhere.

The dogs seem to both respect the nesting ducks. They haven't hatched yet and Harvey, who is most interested, will stand at the top of the bank and just wag his tail at them. He doesn't go any closer and he doesn't bark. He spend quite a portion of his day doing this. Unfortunately it's also the site of a wasp nest and he's already been stung on the side of the nose. I'm sure it won't be the last time either. He never learns.