Meandering

I was hoping for a sunset this evening, but I hadn't reckoned on the blanket of cloud lying over the Lake District. The sun disappeared into this just as I arrived at the chosen spot. But there was some compensation in the glowing clouds reflecting gold in the Kent estuary, the only colour left below the cloud line.

After yesterday's hopeful signs, we kept an eye on the plate of strawberries in Reg's hutch today. I came home at lunchtime, and did the afternoon vigil while working in the room overlooking the garden. But if it was him yesterday, he must have been sleeping off his banquet, for there was no sign today. Reassuringly though, nothing else appeared to eat the food. I had started to have a nagging doubt that a squirrel might have taken the food yesterday, and not Reg. Unlikely maybe, but not impossible.

There was other life though. One of the blackbird chicks, fresh from the nest, appeared on the lawn. His father, who I have blipped twice in the last week, was desperately trying to keep him in the relative safety of the flower beds. But Big Chick would keep bouncing into view to beg for food as the father was trying to extract the next meal from the lawn. Big Chick is big, but with an awful lot of development left to do before he will be safe from ground predators. Bob the Cat fortunately has spent most of the afternoon asleep, though I did have to distract him at one stage. So far, so good.

Post script. Looking back a year, I was at almost exactly the same spot, though that time the sunset did shine for me and the herons flew.