Quiet Day at Home

It is nearing the end of football (soccer) season. However, it's not over yet. The Man of the Place and George have gone to an away game and I've had the house to myself.

I walked the dog up the road to our favourite off-the-lead place. The place where I was rescuing toads last Sunday. I saw a huge flock of geese flying overhead just as I was going out. It wasn't the Canada Goose. I know their honk very well. It could have been the Barnacle Goose or the Greylag. In any case there was a huge "V" of them. I suspect there were over 40 birds.

We saw the usual pheasants, robins, chaffinches etc. I did see a grouse! It was flushed out of the heather not far from where we flushed it out last week, merely by walking past the thing. They make much less noise when going skyward than a pheasant.

During our inspection of the ponds, I noticed there were a lot of half toads in the road. A head here, a pair of legs there. Something has been eating them. Eww. I salvaged a mating pair of toads by taking them off the road and to the edge of a pond. Let's hope I have also saved them from predation.

On the way back to the house, the rain started in. Typical. It was beautiful when I got up this morning. But as Polly and I were going past some scrub and untrimmed hedges, I saw a Goldcrest. Britain's smallest bird. At first I thought it was a Wren, but then I saw the yellow flash on the top of its wee head. It would be nice if I could get photos of these not so common birds, but 1. I don't usually take the camera with me when I am walking the dog and 2. the birds won't stay still for me.

Looking out to the bird table, I keep hoping that I'll see the red squirrel again. It hasn't been back yet. I am however noticing that we really need to cut the grass. Its still too wet to cut just yet. We'll need at least three days of no rain before the grass can be cut. Before that though, we must actually buy a lawnmower. The old one died. Apparently you need to make sure that there is oil in the engine all the time. Sheesh!

So, here at the very quiet Whitelees, I have been cleaning floors, loading the dishwasher, getting some laundry processed.

I also get to watch some TV without having somebody come in and be horrified at what I'm watching. Usually its romantic comedies or Killer Tigers of Asia but occasionally I like Dog the Bountyhunter. That's good for a chuckle.

As I am married to a vegetarian, I also get to tuck into the pate and have salami sandwiches without offending anybody. Its a shame that its still a bit early or I could wash it all down with some Asti Spumante - a very underrated drink!

I'm off to watch Mean Girls now.