Sulking as the neighbours zoomed off to lunch somewhere and envious of those of you who regularly access the coast I donned my Tregaron fashion accessory, the padded shirt, and went forth to garden....my new residents the sparrows were chirping away and the whistle of wings announced the lovely, yes, truly lovely collared dove at the feeder;his female on a nest in the ivy. Now its not easy gardening with bins around the neck but the advantages are numerous: reed bunts looking very territorial on our pond island, coal tits doing acrobatics around the birch tree, goldcrests singing as tho' their lives depended on it, kites and buzzards circling after the squirrel Sunday lunch,then a swallow swoops across the rushy lawn and straight into the shed, a traditional nest site. It did a double take as the old shed is now clad in waney cedar but went in twice and was gone. Got to be time for tea: well look at that! A tree-creeper who sings at our gateway every year is taking a gob-full of material into a hole in our old little shed and just above it in the pieris is a chiff-chaff!
Well,I pruned the Buddleia!