I've seen better-looking birds

if I'm honest.

I'm not a bird-photographer. I don't have the patience. If you want to see really great robin pics look here: emyjane2.

Only one female blackbird is likely to come anywhere near us. All the other birds fly away when any of us go outside - and they usually stay away. So I've found it quite difficult taking photos of birds.

But recently the really shy robins have been bringing their babies to the garden. I've been leaving mealworms out for them and slowly, slowly the babies have become more confident. Today I socialised 3 robins to the sound of the camera shutter. It was very cute. They went from flying off in horror, to merely jumping on the spot, to completely ignoring the noise.
This isn't the best-focussed shot or the best-looking robin but I like the shape of it best.

We thought he was a young robin who was just getting his adult feathers but he doesn't have a yellow line around his mouth, he's been scruffy for weeks now, has one odd-looking wing and he sits down to eat. So I'm wondering if he's been through the wars.

Robin Wars. That would make a good TV programme.

The weather forecast for this weekend was a bit off. It's been cool but lovely and sunny. We even had lunch outside today. (Well - tried to... Tess is still not well and lasted about 5 minutes).
But an hour or so after taking this photo the weather's turned and I've just had to do a mad washing grab from the garden. At least the rain waited until evening for a change.

I can't help but feel extremely deflated at the moment. I feel as if I am doing a lot of things badly (again). Everything seems to have come at once and I seem to be making excuses for myself all the time to everyone and hoping it doesn't simply sound lame. I feel as if it sounds lame.

I'm particularly annoyed about something in particular and fed-up with explaining myself. I feel as if I have done my best under the circumstances but it's not good enough. I feel like there's nowhere to go to say what I really feel either.

Life's like a big bag of juggling balls. Only mine don't seem to juggle - they just keep falling out of a big hole at the bottom of the bag all at once and if I'm not careful all people see is chaos and my huge arse sticking in the air as I'm scrabbling around on the floor trying to pick them up. Then there's always some unhelpful person to say, 'Oi - you've dropped your balls! You were supposed to juggle them!'

I KNOW!!! Tell me something I don't know.

How about someone telling me I've done something good/right/brave for a change while dealing with a crappy bag. That would be nice.

I'm clearly mad.
Or perhaps I'm a genius
I read something last week that said that metaphors are the tools of a genius (thanks to Sarah for sharing it on Twitter).

In fact I'll dash off and find the link....

Sounds of feet trotting away down an echoey corridor to the library and back

Yur tiz:

GENIUSES THINK METAPHORICALLY. Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, believing that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts. If unlike things are really alike in some ways, perhaps, they are so in others. Alexander Graham Bell observed the comparison between the inner workings of the ear and the movement of a stout piece of membrane to move steel and conceived the telephone. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, in one day, after developing an analogy between a toy funnel and the motions of a paper man and sound vibrations. Underwater construction was made possible by observing how shipworms tunnel into timber by first constructing tubes. Einstein derived and explained many of his abstract principles by drawing analogies with everyday occurrences such as rowing a boat or standing on a platform while a train passed by.

from: How Geniuses Think by Michael Michalko

I'm going off on a tangent again... I think it stems from needing and wanting to get my studying done but being worried about an ill daughter and not being able to get stuck into anything serious. (And it being a Bank Holiday so Richard's been working).
This chickenpox has hit Tess hard. I remember the older 2 being better by day 3 but she seems worse. And I'm probably ranting too much in my blipfoto due to stemming my creative/writer's side for too long too and now it's herniating out all over the place.

I won't wail because I'm a grown-up. But I might sulk.

(And anyway I wailed yesterday)