Pistachios

100 g of  pistachios shelled for a cake.

Purple sprouting broccoli that arrived already flowering.

The snail high out of harm's way.

Sycamore seeds, prematurely fallen.

Clematis

The hall window.

Spring greens.

New bird feeder - addendum

Better still is the new breakfast buffet facility.

The new bird feeder...

spotted by the baby 'bird' peeping out from a nest in the eaves next door,

while mother skillfully demonstrates 

the comfort and convenience 

of this well appointed bird feeder.

The perches are useful handles for steadying oneself,

and the tray is capacious enough for one's bushy tail.

This is plainly just showing off now

with the look-no-hands trick.

More precarious than it looks because the feeder

is in fact swinging quite wildly.

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H.Davies

The weekend so far

A magnificent heron spotted this morning

 on our newly cleaned up local river.

The birds are emptying the feeders faster than I can fill them.

Organic gardens have greenfly

on their weeds.

But it's hard to mind very much.

Supper on the decking for the first time this year.

This azalea is the exact colour of the Blenheim dried apricots that I ate wrapped around a square of Green & Black's 70% dark chocolate.

Lord love a duck*

In what lies the fascination of ducks? For an overwhelming fascination it is, and one that grows and becomes more and more commanding. The very haunts of wild duck - the grey waters, open spaces and wild country, and the cold, rough weather that is most associated with them, exercise a particular charm which nothing else quite equals.

These two were sitting together on a bridge in the park, 

entirely unfazed by my presence or camera.

Indeed the drake seemed only too happy to pose.

His mate wears a more guarded expression.

Since early times ducks, particularly those with bright plumage, have been kept in captivity on account of their decorativeness and friendly disposition, though this custom was more popular in France than in this country.

In 1661 King Charles II formed a collection of waterfowl in London, in St James's Park, and used to amuse himself by feeding them. The birds apparently bred in good numbers, and there are records that baskets were provided for the ducks to nest in.

The collection of water-fowl in St James's Park was the predecessor of many other collections big and small, all over the country. At the present day it is almost a foregone conclusion that a park with a lake should have a collection of wild duck...and many wild birds join the tame ones and soon lose their fear of human beings.

A Book of Ducks - Phyllis Barclay-Smith

(* A mild expression of surprise, found in James Joyce's Ulysses,

T.S Eliot's The Rock and P.G Wodehouse's The Coming of Bill.)