It never rains but it pours...

I know we're in a drought...
I know we need the rain...
I can see the garden is thriving on all this moisture...
But it would be nice to go out without getting soaked!

A funny old day. Our speckled hen bacame very poorly yesterday evening, and I spent the first part of the morning trying to arrange a vet's appointment. Unfortunately no-one could see her, as several of the local vets had called in sick and all the available appointments were taken. In the end this saved me some money, as it turned out that she was egg bound. She finally laid a thin-shelled egg in the afternoon and was immediately back to her usual self. We've now upped her vitamins and calcium to try and avoid any repeat of this.

In the afternoon Alex, Ben and I took the dogs to Thorpe Wood. I'm leading a walk there at 11am on Sunday (as part of a Wildlife Trust event celebrating bluebells) and wanted to do a quick recce. Alex is writing a management plan for the wood as part of his course, and needed to get some ideas. Ben and the dogs just went for the exercise! There was a little bit of sunshine when we started out, but it started raining about half way round, and by the time we got back to the car it was pouring down!

I spotted this amazing mercurial droplet when I got home. It had formed on the waxy, water repellant leaf of our plume poppy - another case of surface tension in action!!